Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s challenger Abdullah Abdullah withdrew on Sunday from next weekend’s runoff election, effectively handing the incumbent a victory but raising doubts about the government’s credibility at a time when the US is seeking an effective partner in the war against the Taliban.

Former foreign minister Abdullah said he made his decision after Karzai turned down his demands for changes to the Independent Election Commission and other measures that he said would prevent massive fraud, which marred the first round of balloting on August 20. He stopped short of calling for an electoral boycott and urged his followers “not to go to the streets, not to demonstrate”.

Kai Eide, the top UN official in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the next step is to “bring this electoral process to a conclusion in a legal and timely manner”.

Hours later, Daoud Ali Najafi, the government-appointed Independent Election Commission’s chief electoral officer, was quoted by AFP as saying: “The deadline to withdraw has passed, therefore the commission is determined to conduct a run-off election. We’ll go for a run-off as scheduled.” Even though Abdullah has opted out, Najafi said the commission would still be counting his votes.

The clouded electoral picture further complicates the Obama administration’s efforts to decide whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies. The White House has been waiting for a new government in Kabul to announce a decision, but the war has intensified in the meantime. October was the deadliest month of the war for US forces, with at least 57 American deaths.

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