WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a week after accepting a runoff election against rival Abdullah Abdullah, is confident he will win the contest, his aides said. The aides say Karzai has recovered from what may have been seen as humiliation when he accepted the runoff and is now comfortable with the decision and confident he will win, The Washington Post reported Monday. The original uncertified results showed he had won an outright victory in the Aug. 20 elections but the runoff was called after a U.N.-backed commission determined instances of fraud in the polls. Campaign spokesman Waheed Omar said Karzai had accepted the runoff for the future of Afghanistan, to restore the legitimacy of the process, and has instructed all of us to put our efforts into getting people to come out and vote, the Post said. The report said Karzai is expected to win the runoff as his Pashtun people were expected to support him since his opponent is identified with other ethnic groups. The New York Times also said Karzai is confident of winning, and that may have been one reason why he ruled out any power-sharing arrangement with Abdullah, which would have made the second election unnecessary. We cannot make the vote of the people of Afghanistan and its Constitution take a back seat to political deal-making, Omar was quoted as saying. Abdullah told CNN Sunday he would rather be in opposition than share power with Karzai.