Karzai will not seek third term

President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan for nearly a decade, said Thursday he would not seek a third term in office at an election due to coincide with the end of Nato combat operations in 2014. Some political opponents had feared that Karzai, who has been Afghanistan's only leader since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, may amend the constitution in order to stay in power.
"The constitution of Afghanistan does not allow anyone to run for the presidency for more than two terms," the president's office quoted Karzai as telling a group of parliamentarians. He "will not try to run for the presidency for the third time", it said, adding that he was making the announcement in response to "rumours".
With three years to go before Afghanistan's next presidential election, the announcement took many analysts in Kabul by surprise. On Wednesday, Karzai took a step towards resolving a long-running row over vote-rigging in last September's parliamentary polls by handing authority for adjudicating the issue to the Independent Election Commission.
But it was not immediately clear whether the two moves were connected. Karzai has also suffered the loss of a number of key allies in recent months in the midst of a raging Taliban insurgency. The president, whose initially warm ties with the West have descended into acrimony in recent years, was sworn in as interim leader of Afghanistan in December 2001, shortly after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban.