KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A panel investigating the Afghan presidential elections said Wednesday incumbent President Hamid Karzai won with 55 percent of the vote, the BBC reported.
While he stopped short of making an official declaration, election official Sultan Baheen told journalists: "Karzai is the winner."
The panel submitted its report to the election commission that is made up of U.N. and Afghan officials, who were expected to make the formal announcement later in the day.
Since the Oct. 9 vote, the three-member United Nations panel has looked into numerous complaints of voting irregularities, but the number of complaints were still not enough to take away Karzai's majority, the report said.
Many of the complaints were of people voting more than once. Officials marked the hands of each voter with ink, but it was quickly learned the ink could be washed off.
Karzai's main rival, Yunus Qanooni, has already conceded.
