Washington, November 02: A senior US official says presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan’s run-off election will not have a big impact on Washington’s ongoing review of its Afghan war strategy.
President Barack Obama’s top White House advisor, David Axelrod, told CBS television on Sunday that Abdullah withdrew because polls showed the opposition candidate was likely to lose.
“He has made a political decision to withdraw from this contest and that does not markedly change the situation,” he added.
Abdullah, who finished second to Karzai in the first round of voting on August 20, pulled out of the second round of the Afghan presidential election on Sunday after his conditions for ensuring a fraud-free election were rejected.
Senior White House officials have encouraged President Hamid Karzai to go ahead with a one-man contest, saying Abdullah’s withdrawal will not complicate Obama’s efforts to revise his war strategy.
—–Agencies