Afghan president may call early elections

[April 12, 2012]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday he is considering calling presidential elections a year early to lessen the strain that could be caused by foreign combat troops leaving Afghanistan at the same time as the nation is holding a national ballot.

The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2014 and the majority of NATO combat forces will leave Afghanistan by the end of that same year. At that time, Karzai will be at the end of his second five-year term and the constitution bars him from running for a third term.

"I have been talking about this for a few months now," Karzai said. "With all the changes that are taking place -- with the complete return of international forces to their homes from Afghanistan and the holding of the presidential election at the same time -- whether that will be an agenda that we can handle at the same time."

Karzai said no final decision has been made about moving the vote up to 2013 and that such a decision would take a long time. He spoke during a news conference in response to a reporter's question about the possibility of early elections.

"This is a question that I've had and I've raised it in my inner circle," Karzai said. "I've not had a final decision yet, but it will not be soon."

He said he had been thinking and consulting for some time about either moving up the elections or speeding up the exit of foreign troops. There are positives to both the ideas, he said.

According to the Afghan constitution, the president's term should expire in May 2014 and elections must be held 30 to 60 days before that.

However, Karzai delayed the 2009 presidential elections by about six months because of security concerns. A subsequent, drawn-out battle over fraud at the ballot box led to him not actually being sworn in until November that year. It is not clear if Karzai considers his second five-year term as starting from May or November 2009.

It is uncertain if the mercurial Karzai would go through with early elections. He has ruled out running for a third term.

Karzai made the comments at a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was in Kabul for talks on the transition of security responsibilities from the international coalition to Afghan security forces.

Rasmussen said NATO it is on track to fully hand over responsibility for securing Afghanistan to local forces by the end of 2014 as scheduled.

NATO also said Afghan troops would be ready to take the lead role around the country by mid-2013, allowing international combat forces to move into a support and training role.

Earlier Rasmussen flew to an Afghan special forces training camp on the outskirts of the capital.

"We will stick to the road map and we will gradually hand over by 2014," Rasmussen told Afghan special forces during his visit to their main training base outside Kabul.

The security transition began last year, when NATO handed over responsibility for areas that are home to half the nation's population -- with coalition forces in those regions now in a support role. The handover took place in two stages and a third tranche is expected before a NATO summit in Chicago in late May. Another three phases are planned over the coming year.

"Thanks to the courage and commitment of the Afghan forces we will reach out common goal of a secure Afghanistan," Rasmussen said. "What I have seen makes me confident that we will fulfill our goal of handing over responsibility to the Afghan national security forces."

[Associated Press; By PATRICK QUINN and DEB RIECHMANN]

Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed to this report from Kabul.

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