Abdullah Abdullah, the only challenger to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, in the election runoff scheduled for next weekend, has announced that he is dropping out of the race.

Abdullah said he made the decision because the government did not meet his demands for a fair vote.

Abdullah had wanted Afghanistan's top election official to be fired after a UN-led investigation found widespread fraud in the first round of voting on August 20. But the government has refused.

So, will the runoff, in which Karzai is now unchallenged, be legitimate and just where does this leave democracy in Afghanistan?

Inside Story, with presenter Shiulie Ghosh, discusses with guests Waheed Omar, the spokesperson for Hamid Karzai's election campaign, Wali Masood, the former Afghan ambassador to the UK and a senior adviser to Abdullah Abdullah, and Michael Griffin, an Afghanistan expert and author.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, November 1, 2009.