KABUL, Nov 3: Incumbent Hamid Karzai is the official winner of last month's historic Afghan presidential election, the body organizing the vote said on Wednesday.

"Karzai is the winner," Sultan Baheen, spokesman for the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body told journalists.

Karzai's victory had never been in doubt, but counting the votes from the Oct 9 poll took several weeks and the election commission had also to assess a report given by a three-man panel investigating allegations of vote fraud.

The panel delivered its report on Tuesday and concluded that while there had been shortcomings, including cases of ballot stuffing, the irregularities had not affected the overall result..-AFP