Election, what election?

So there won't be a runoff election in Afghanistan: "Karzai Gets New Term as Afghan Runoff is Scraped." I wonder if we'll ever hear the real story behind this disaster. I guess this is the least bad option considering the money and lives that will not be lost proping up this farce, but there is now little hope of having the political legitimacy that is supposedly the bedrock necessity of our strategy's success in Afghanistan.