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Afghan contender criticizes Karzai’s poll decree

01 March 2009 09:39 (UTC +04:00)

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan presidential contender has criticized President Hamid Karzai’s call for the election to be brought forward from August to April, saying the earlier date would not give other candidates time to campaign.

Karzai’s decree on Saturday calling for the poll to be held much sooner than almost anyone sees as practically possible was a deft political maneuver, analysts say, to force opposition groups to concede he can stay in office after a May deadline set by the constitution.

The decree puts the young Afghan democracy in uncharted constitutional territory and puts Karzai at odds with the election commission, which set August 20 as the date for polls, and his U.S. backers who supported the commission’s decision.

The United States "supports the underlying principles articulated by President Karzai" but still believed August would be a better time to hold elections in a secure environment, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to try to secure the elections in August against the strong threat from Taliban insurgents. Bringing the polls forward would not give the troops time to even arrive in the country.

Other candidates would also be put in a disadvantage, said presidential contender Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

"All candidates and influential figures have been trying to get ready for the campaign in the month of August, but a sudden change to the decision and holding the elections in the month of April will create certain problems," he told Afghan television late on Saturday.

Karzai’s decree said the election should be held according to the constitution. That states the president’s term ends on May 21 and new polls to elect his successor must be held between 30 and 60 days before that, giving April 21 as the last possible date.

LEGITIMACY

Opposition leaders had said Karzai’s position would be illegitimate if he remained in office beyond May 21.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said a spring election would be impossible because it would have to be organized during the harsh Afghan winter when many areas are inaccessible and people in those areas would be disenfranchised.

"Before deciding the election date, the Independent Election Commission took into account all aspects including funding, security and the wide participation in the polls, and also climate," IEC deputy chief Zekria Barakzai told Reuters.

He said the commission had not yet received an official copy of the decree. "We are waiting to receive the presidential decree and then we will evaluate it and make our decision," he said.

Top of the list of problems for early polls would be the Taliban insurgency raging across much of the south and east up to the fringes of the capital, Kabul. The extra troops Obama ordered deployed in spring were meant to boost security by August.

NATO said it was too early to comment on whether its 56,000-strong force in Afghanistan would be able to secure an election in the next three to seven weeks. Afghan security forces are to take the lead in providing security for the vote.

Hafiz Mansur, the head of one of the two main opposition groups, said his party believed in the constitution but it should not be exploited to "create chaos, disorder and hold the elections unfairly," he told Afghan television.

Ahmadzai called for a large meeting of Afghan political leaders to decide on how best to hold a free and fair election on the basis of national interests.