Hamid Karzai seizes control of Afghan election watchdog

By Heidi Blake Published: 9:01AM GMT twenty-three February 2010

Hamid Karzai has taken carry out of Afghanistan"s choosing watchdog Photo: GETTY

The countrys Electoral Complaints Commission formerly enclosed 3 unfamiliar experts selected by the UN. But Karzai has taken disdainful energy to designate all five row members underneath a presidential direct published today, whilst the Afghan council is in recess.

The move has annoyed snub between Western diplomats, who fright that the parliamentary elections due to take place in 6 months will be blighted by a repeat of the drawn out vote-rigging that compromised the presidential competition last year.

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Another electoral debate would be an unwelcome stumbling retard to general efforts to repel the Taliban and set up open certainty in the Afghan Government.

Experts pronounced the Afghan boss was abusing his energy to have laws whilst council was not sitting in a tract to get absolved of the 3 UN allocated foreigners and "Afghanise" the ECC.

The commission"s Canadian authority and his dual UN-appointed colleagues were instrumental in perfectionist a rascal review during the choosing last summer.

Mr Karzai was forced in to a second turn of choosing by casting votes after the ECC nude him of 954,526 votes, withdrawal him short of the infancy he indispensable to win outright.

The president, who won in the second round, has never supposed that there was drawn out rascal and blames foreigners for "defaming" the electoral process. But Abdullah Abdullah, the runner-up in the presidential election, pronounced the involvement of unfamiliar commissioners last year was the usually thing that prevented the nation forward in to "absolute turmoil".

He told The Guardian: "It is a step retrograde and it has to be challenged by council and the general community.

"If we are left with this incident as it is today, it could severely imperil the efforts being done on the troops front."The choosing direct additionally does zero to residence unfamiliar concerns about the Independent Election Commission, the Afghan organization charged with using the vote."