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Afghan President Signs Decree To Resolve Poll Row
August 13, 2011
By: Carlos Aramayo | Printer Friendly

On August 10, the New York Times reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai handed authority for resolving the lingering dispute over last year's controversial parliamentary elections to the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC). Karzai’s decree states that the courts do not have the power to decide disputed results from last year's parliamentary polls.

Specifically, the decree hands the IEC responsibility for deciding how many Afghan lawmakers should be disqualified from parliament because of vote-rigging during the September 2010 parliamentary election. The issue is highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has prompted angry protests on the streets of Kabul by both winning and losing lawmakers, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the New York Times, observers hoped Karzai's decree would be a step towards breaking the paralysis affecting the Afghan parliament since its inauguration in January 2011. However, the decree has raised new questions about how the dispute would be resolved since it could only bring that crisis to a close if legislators agree to accept it.

The decree states that the IEC should "immediately finalize" the issue and added, "After this decree, all issues of the Wolesi Jirga (parliament) elections processed in any other body, apart from the IEC, are considered ended." The IEC also dissolved Afghanistan's special election tribunal and disqualified other government bodies from ruling on the issue. The IEC had certified the original election results last November, but will now have to issue a fresh ruling following months of controversy. In June 2011, the special tribunal ruled in favor of throwing out 62 lawmakers, a quarter of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga (the lower house of the parliament). While welcoming the decree, an IEC spokesman remarked it did not oblige the IEC to respect the special tribunal's ruling on throwing out 62 lawmakers, whom it strongly opposed, BBC News reported.

Karzai’s decision to nullify the court came almost 11 months after parliamentary elections were held.

For previous news on Afghanistan, please see:
Karzai Agrees to Inaugurate New Afghan Parliament Months After Election

Sources:
The New York Times – Karzai Annuls Afghan Court Reviewing 2010 Polls

BBC News – Hamid Karzai bid to end Afghan election dispute

Al Jazeera – Karzai: Court cannot change election results