Election officials declared Hamid Karzai the winner of Afghanistan's disputed presidential election after his last opponent dropped out of the race. Voters were supposed to return to the polls this coming Saturday week for a run-off election, but now that a government is in place after the election turmoil, there's more pressure on the Obama administration to make quick decisions.

Hamid Karzai will serve another five-year term as President of Afghanistan. That country's election commission declared Karzai the winner after his opponent dropped out of the race.

Abdullah Abdullah, former Afghan presidential candidate, said, "I will not participate in the November 7th elections." Abdullah Abdullah and Karzai were supposed to face off in a second round this coming Saturday, but that's been cancelled.  

The original election in August was tarnished by fraud. Investigators threw out one-third of Karzai's vote after finding widespread evidence of ballot box stuffing.  When Abdullah announced he was dropping out, he said he didn't think things would be any more fair in the second round.

Karzai's win puts new pressure on President Obama to decide on a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. The White House wanted to know who the winner would be before announcing whether the U.S. will deploy more troops to the war zone. The President's top advisers say  the decision is too important to rush.

Appearing on "Face the Nation," David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, said, "The goal here is not just to make an arithmetic judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure that we have the right strategy to reach our goal." But some critics want the Commander-in-chief to act now.

Also appearing on "Face the Nation," Sen. Joe Lieberman (I - Connecticut) said, "we lost more American soldiers in the last month than any month previously in the year. It's time to send help."

That help could come in the form of up to 40,000 extra U.S. troops. The President's top advisers say he'll make his decision in a matter of weeks.

Courtesy of Joel Brown with CBS News