Karzai agrees to allow non-Afghans onto election watchdog
Karzai agrees to allow non-Afghans onto election watchdog
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by Sam Ross. |  |
Saturday, 13, Mar 2010 04:05
By Richard James.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai has reportedly agreed to allow two foreigners to join the country's main electoral watchdog, reversing a controversial decree announced last month which had handed him total control.
The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) had previously included three foreign experts named by the United Nations but a presidential decree passed in February gave Mr Karzai the power to appoint all five members.
A spokesman for the president announced on Saturday that decision had now been changed.
Speaking to a press conference, Waheed Omar announced: "The law that was passed is clear in stating that the commission is comprised of five Afghan members."
He added, however, the government of Afghanistan had now "declared its readiness to accept two non-Afghan members" to the ECC ahead of the parliamentary elections in September.
"This [is] exclusively for the upcoming parliamentary elections," he added, claiming Afghanistan was on a "transitional phase" to democracy.
Mr Karzai came in for severe criticism following his original decision to take over control of the electoral watchdog especially in light of his calamitous re-election last August.
Public opinion in the US and the UK began turning against the military offensive in Afghanistan, which was first launched in 2001, towards the end of last year in light of the allegations of widespread vote-fixing and fraud.
The ECC even forced the president into an election runoff after disqualifying almost one million fraudulent votes.
Afghanistan is set to hold its second post-Taliban parliamentary elections later this year and the west has raised concerns another electoral controversy could be deeply damaging to the international efforts to restore stability in the country.