Judges seek delay in opening Afghan parliament

[January 19, 2011]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan tribunal investigating fraud in September's parliamentary elections said Wednesday the opening session of the legislature should be delayed one month to allow judges more time for their inquiry.

The request for a delay throws further uncertainty on an election that many had hoped would demonstrate a commitment by the Afghan government to fight cronyism and corruption after a fraud-marred presidential vote in 2009 nearly undermined the authority of President Hamid Karzai.

Instead, the parliamentary ballot was tainted by familiar allegations of fraud and voter intimidation, and debates since then over who gets to decide the final results have cast even more doubt on the process.

The parliament had been set to start work Jan. 23 after an earlier investigation by an anti-fraud watchdog into the charges of irregularities. That group discarded 1.3 million ballots -- nearly a quarter of the total -- and disqualified 19 winning candidates before final results were issued on Nov. 24.

But the attorney general concluded that investigation had not been thorough enough and launched a new round of inquiries that led to the creation of the special tribunal in late December.

A spokesman for President Karzai said his office was working on a statement about the court's request for more time but declined to make an immediate comment.

It is unclear if the tribunal has the power to alter the result of any races. Afghan electoral law names the fraud investigation panel as the ultimate arbiter of such issues and the Independent Election Commission as the body to declare final results.

The head of the five-judge tribunal, Sadiqullah Haqiq, told reporters that the court has the power to overturn results and even to invalidate the entire election. To make such decisions, he said, more time is needed.

"We have requested from the president a one-month delay for the opening of the parliamentary session," Haqiq said, explaining that there were more than 300 cases that they needed to investigate before being able to rule on results.

"You cannot find any province in which there was not fraud," he added.

Haqiq chastised election officials for being uncooperative. He quoted a two-sentence letter the commission sent in response to a request for information: "No other institution has the authority to make any decision about the final results of the election. If you have any questions you should go to our website and study the information posted there."

Officials with the Independent Election Commission could not be reached for comment.

Haqiq said a refusal by commission officials to cooperate could throw the entire election into doubt.

"If there is no cooperation with the special court by the IEC in the capital and in the provincial offices, if we cannot make a decision in this one month, then the nation will think about the illegitimacy and legitimacy of the election and the court will make a decision about that," he said. His speech was met with applause by a collection of losing candidates who attended the press conference.

It is generally believed that Karzai is not happy with the new parliament, given his support for renewed investigations after the release of final results. However, many of the winning candidates are unknowns and it is not clear if this group would be more or less critical of Karzai than the previous parliament.

Karzai said previously that he planned to open the parliamentary session on Jan. 23 but also that he would let the investigations opened by the attorney general and the courts run their course.

Winning candidates say Karzai has promised them he will defend the issued results. But there are also hundreds of losing candidates in the election, in which 2,500 contenders ran for the 249 seats. Many of the losers say Karzai has told them he believes they were wronged and that he will do everything to support further investigations.

The election has proved a nagging problem for Karzai's government as it tries to focus with its NATO allies on fighting the Taliban in their southern strongholds. As politicians have argued over seats, violence has surged across the country.

On Wednesday, a roadside bombing killed 13 civilians in eastern Paktika province.

The violence both on election day and since has made officials reluctant to call for repeat votes even in provinces where the results seem skewed disproportionately toward one ethnic group. A move to annul all or part of the vote could throw the government into crisis -- with a parliament seen as illegitimate but no way to hold elections with any better result.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT]

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