Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, has announced that he now has the power to appoint all five members of the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission, a body that has had until now three foreigners appointed by the United Nations. Western governments are expressing their dismay at the move. The commission played a key role in 2009 in exposing electoral fraud, forcing a second round of presidential voting.
Update 17:00 Reports from Kabul say that the Electoral Complaints Commission has finalized its tally and, discarding fraudulent ballots, the new total vote for Afghan President Hamid Karzai gives him 48 percent, less than the 50 percent necessary to avoid a run-off. The new results have been communicated to the Independent Election Commission, which has not yet decided whether to accept them. Nor is it clear what the reaction will be in the president’s office. AP, New York Times
Pressure is mounting on Karzai to accept a run-off election between him and the runner-up in last August’s elections, or to agree to some sort of power-sharing deal. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has been holding talks with both sides, and John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was also in Kabul this past weekend, 17 and 18 October. The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission has been witholding the results of its investigation into massive electoral fraud, which may rob Karzai of his first-round victory. Karzai won with 54 percent of the vote.
A run-off election must be held within two weeks by law, but winter is closing in quickly in Afghanistan and would greatly hamper the logistics of a new election. The US administration is debating whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan to fight an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency. On Sunday, 18 October, a top aide to US President Obama said that the Afghan government needed to be “a credible partner” for the US to be able to deal with it. CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters
One of two Afghan members of Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission, set up by the UN to monitor electoral irregularities, resigned 12 October, saying that foreigners were interfering too much.
Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, a supreme court judge, says that he had little input in the decision-making process of the panel, which is investigating charges of voter fraud in national elections held in August to choose a president and provincial assemblies. The head of the commission, Grant Kippen, denied the claims, saying “We are only a five-member team. Every member is integral to our work.”
The commission will report on the results of its investigation later this week. It is composed of three foreigners and two Afghan members, designated by the UN. BBC, CNN
The investigation of vote-rigging and fraud in Afghanistan’s recent presidential election 18 August is concentrating on thousands of votes allegedly cast by women. The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (EEC) has charged the Independent Election Commission (IEC) with an extensive audit of its staff, especially in remote rural regions, which returned suspiciously high numbers of female votes in favour of incumbent President Hamid Karzai. In one province, Paktya, thousands of women votes were counted, although there was only one female IEC representative in the province. Paktya voted 91.7 percent in favour of President Karzai.
Women vote separately from men in Afghanistan, and in rural areas very few women are allowed to vote in person. Registration cards issued to women voters do not have photographs because it is deemed impolite to show one’s face to a stranger. Gulf Times, The Times
Related: Chapatte
