Karzai Declared Winner In Afghanistan

News alert from the Associated Press, with confirmation from NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Kabul:

"Afghan election commission chairman declares President Hamid Karzai election victor."

AP adds that:

Independent Election Commission chairman Azizullah Lodin announced Karzai as the victor during a news conference in Kabul on Monday.

Reuters says: "Afghanistan's election commission declares Karzai as elected president."

Yesterday, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the runoff election that had been set for this coming Saturday, saying he did not think a transparent election was going to be held.

In August, Karzai won the most votes — but his total fell below 50% when more than a million were tossed out because of widespread evidence of fraud. That led to the eventual scheduling of the runoff, with Abdullah (who came in second in the August vote) as the challenger.

Then, earlier today, Saturday's runoff was scrubbed since there was no challenger to Karzai.

The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that "U.S. and other Western officials, who leaned heavily on Karzai to accept a runoff after the tainted election in August, (were) pressing him and electoral officials to find a legally acceptable way to cancel the poll and declare Karzai the winner. Neither the U.S. nor the United Nations is prepared to risk more lives for an election with only one candidate, said a Western official familiar with the talks."

Update at 2:45 p.m. ET. At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs says Karzai is "obviously" the legitimate leader of Afghanistan:

Update at 8:25 a.m. ET: Soraya reports that Karzai must "deliver more on services to his people, and security for his people" if he's going to be seen by most Afghans as legitimate:

Update at 7:10 a.m. ET: On Morning Edition, Soraya reported about Abdullah's decision to drop out of the election — and Abdullah told NPR's Renee Montagne that it was a "painful" choice. He also vowed to continue calling for reform and the end of corruption in his country: