Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he will not seek a third term in office.

Some political opponents had feared Mr. Karzai would try to amend the constitution in order to be allowed to run for another term.

But the Afghan leader said Thursday that the constitution does not allow a president to serve more than two terms.

Mr. Karzai has been the only leader of Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban-led government in 2001. Now, a decade later, international troops have begun pulling out of the war-torn country and transferring security responsibility to their Afghan counterparts.

President Karzai was elected to a second term in 2009 in a vote that was mired in allegations of fraud. Roughly one-third of votes cast for Mr. Karzai were thrown out by the Electoral Complaints Commission.

Allegations of misconduct and vote-rigging also hit Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, which were held last September.

A special Afghan court set up by Mr. Karzai disqualified 62 lawmakers – a quarter of the 249-seat lower house of parliament – following an investigation into allegations of massive voter fraud during parliamentary elections. But critics said the court was an illegal attempt by the Afghan president to reshape the parliament more to his liking.

On Wednesday, Mr. Karzai issued a decree giving the country's Independent Election Commission the final say in whether any lawmakers should be removed. The decree dissolves the special elections tribunal, with the president saying that the courts do not have the power to change election results.