UN General Assembly calls Afghanistan elections 'credible'

NEW YORK, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The UN General Assembly has called recent presidential elections in Afghanistan "credible" and "legitimate."

The resolution, adopted on Monday, comes shortly after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential elections when officials scrapped the second round of voting following the withdrawal of his opponent.

The UN welcomed the electoral efforts of the Afghan authorities "to ensure a credible and legitimate process," and urged Karzai's government to press ahead with a "strengthening of the rule of law."

Abdullah Abdullah was Karzai's only challenger in the November 7 runoff, but the former Afghan foreign minister announced that he would not take part in the second round due to the president's refusal to dismiss the nation's top election official and take other action to prevent fraud.

The runoff was scheduled after Karzai, who was officially given 54.6% of the first-round vote, bowed to international pressure and accepted the findings of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, which said the election was tainted by wide-scale fraud.