November 2, 2009 3:11 PM
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Roundtable: Afghanistan Runoff Cancellation Might Be For Best
CBS News Washington Bureau Chief Chris Isham said on "Washington Unplugged" Monday that the Afghanistan Election Commission "dodged a bullet" in cancelling the runoff presidential election in Afghanistan following the decision by challenger Abdullah Abdullah to drop out of the race.
"I think they would have had a lot of problems with security, with weather, low turnout…and there probably would have been additional fraud and the results of that election could be as bad as the first one," said Isham.
"It would have been an absurd election because Abdullah had pulled out and everybody knew he had pulled out," he told Bob Orr. "Karzai would have been racing against nobody so it would have been an absurd election."
The commission decided to cancel the runoff after Abdullah announced he was dropping out of concern about a new round of electoral fraud.
Abdullah's decision leaves Karzai weaker than he would have been had he won following a runoff, Teresita Schaffer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said.
"The election will not have given Karzai the legitimacy he was seeking to get out of that," she argued. "To get legitimacy at this point it is going to depend on how he does his job."
Asked about the timetable for President Obama's decision on whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, Isham said the White House risks looking indecisive if a plan is not announced shortly.
The risk in holding off on an announcement "is it being interpreted as a lack of resolve," Isham said.
Watch the full interview above.
"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.
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