Afghanistan’s election body has presented a 6-point plan to President Hamid Karzai in a bid to end a standoff between the incumbent and the country’s lower house that has thrown the country into political crisis, his palace said on Wednesday. Last month, a special poll court set up by Karzai threw out results in about a quarter of the seats in the assembly, raising fears of a showdown between the president and parliament.
The special court, established by a presidential decree after fraud-marred parliamentary elections last year, ordered that 62 lawmakers elected in the September poll vacate their seats in the 249-seat parliament. But most lawmakers, including many who do not face being unseated, reject the court and its ruling as unconstitutional and illegal. Many Afghan officials and international observers agree, and critics say the court was set up to further Karzai’s political agenda and silence opposition.
In a statement, Karzai’s palace said the president had met a number of lawmakers on Wednesday and he had told them the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) had presented a 6-clause plan to “move away from the parliamentary crisis”.
