Afghanistan run-off election cancelled after Abdullah withdraws
Hamid Karzai has been declared president of Afghanistan following a decision by the Afghan election commission to cancel a planned second round of voting that had been made essentially meaningless when Karzai’s rival, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew his candidacy. Abdullah said he pulled out of the runoff vote because he was not convinced that measures had been taken to ensure that the second round of voting would be free of the massive fraud that marked the first round. The lack of a second round of voting will undoubtedly further tarnish Karzai’s legitimacy among Afghans. He may now seek to avoid exasperating regional and ethnic divisions in the country by brining Abdullah, once his foreign minister, into his government.