President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday handed authority for resolving a lingering dispute over last year’s fraud-hit Afghan parliamentary elections to the Independent Election Commission (IEC). Although some observers hoped Karzai’s decree could be a step towards breaking the paralysis dogging the Afghan parliament since its inauguration in January, it also raised fresh questions about how the row would be resolved.
The IEC will now be responsible for deciding how many Afghan lawmakers should be disqualified from parliament because of vote-rigging in the September 2010 polls. The question is highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has prompted angry protests on the streets of Kabul by both winning and losing lawmakers.
It has also raised fresh questions about Karzai’s own standing, with some experts accusing him of dragging out the dispute in order to neuter opponents in parliament. The decree said the IEC should “immediately finalise” the issue and added: “After this decree, all issues of the Wolesi Jirga (parliamentary) elections processed in any other body, apart from the IEC, are considered ended.”
It dissolved Afghanistan’s special election tribunal — which Karzai had backed — and disqualified other government bodies from ruling on the issue, which is being eagerly watched by diplomats in Kabul.
The IEC had certified the original election results last November but will now have to issue a fresh ruling, following months of controversy.
But an official in Karzai’s office, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to speak to the media, explained that the IEC would have to base its findings on previous court rulings.
“The president is asking the IEC to make a final decision based on the evidence, findings and verdicts of the special court and the appeal court,” the source told AFP.
