South Asia News
UN's Eide advised election commission to cancel Afghan runoff
Nov 2, 2009, 15:52 GMT
Kabul - The United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan on Monday said he had advised Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to cancel the presidential election runoff after one of the two candidates pulled out.
'I think this was the correct decision considering the situation,' UN envoy Kai Eide was quoted as telling the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Earlier Monday the election commission declared incumbent Hamid Karzai the winner of the presidential election after his challenger Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the coming weekend's runoff.
The security challenges and costs for staging the elections with only one candidate were factors Eide considered.
'That was my advice to the election commission. It has been a complicated process but I think this was the right way to end it,' the Norwegian diplomat said, according to NTB.
The UN envoy was now focusing on the new cabinet Karzai was to form and ensure that it met demands raised by the Afghan people and the international community.
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