| | Karzai Rebuffed on Date of Afghan Elections The Washington Post
03/04/2009
By Pamela Constable
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KABUL - Afghanistan's election commission on Wednesday strongly rejected President Hamid Karzai's choice of dates for upcoming presidential elections, injecting new uncertainty and tension into a crucial transition for this struggling, Western-backed democracy.
The decision came on the same day that a car bomb exploded outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, wounding three civilian contractors working for a U.S. company, wire services reported.
The nationality of the contractors was not immediately clear, the Associated Press reported. The Taliban, whose resurgence in Afghanistan has posed a grave challenge to Karzai's rule, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Karzai, who has led Afghanistan for seven years and hopes to win reelection, issued a decree last week that effectively ordered the polls held in April or May. The commission, which had previously ruled the election should not be held until August, defied his decree Wednesday and reaffirmed its earlier position.
Commission members said it would be impossible to hold free and fair elections by spring, citing poor security, lack of voter access in remote areas and other difficulties.
"We know the election date is a hot potato," commission chairman Azizullah Ludin told journalists. "Everyone in the world is watching this election carefully. We want it to be acceptable to the people and to international norms."
Ludin said the commission respected Karzai's position, which followed constitutional requirements that elections be held before his term expires in May. But they said that to implement his decree "under the present circumstances is not possible."
Officials of the United Nations and NATO have backed the postponement of the polls until the fall, but so far Karzai has not relented. His office called a news conference Tuesday, which was widely expected to address the issue, but it was canceled at the last minute. Karzai's spokesmen had no immediate comment Wednesday on the commission's action.
The contretemps heightens political uncertainty and doubts about Afghanistan's stability at a time when the country is fighting a revived Taliban insurgency, remains plagued by corruption and drug trafficking, and is still trying to consolidate civilian rule after seven years of massive international aid and military support.
It also leaves unresolved the critical question of who will lead the country during the months between May, when Karzai's term expires, and August. Numerous scenarios have been suggested, including setting up an interim caretaker government and declaring a temporary state of emergency. But no plan has been formally proposed or discussed in parliament.
"With all the other problems we face, holding successful elections is an especially important benchmark of progress," said Haroun Mir, director of the Afghan Center for Research and Investigation. "If we fail to have a fair and peaceful transfer of power, NATO and the U.S. will begin to question why their forces are here to back us."
Critics of Karzai have accused him of insisting on an early date in order to run for reelection as an incumbent, which would give him numerous advantages over an array of opponents. But his recent election decree made clear he was acting to follow the letter of the constitution, and he received considerable praise.
"He did the right thing, but it was too late," said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament from Kabul. "Everyone knows there is no way to hold the elections so quickly, but we need to find a political solution to this crisis, because it is killing our young democracy."
The U.S. military said the attack outside the main base at Bargam occurred in a parking area where truck drivers bringing in supplies, the AP reported. The driver of the car bomb abandoned the vehicle before it detonated, but the attacker was also carrying explosives that went off, killing him, the U.S. military said. No one else was killed in the attack.
The wire service also reported that a roadside blast in Kandahar province late Tuesday killed three Canadian soldiers.
The United States is sending 17,000 additional forces to Afghanistan this year to join 38,000 troops already in the country. The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the Taliban's hard-line Islamist regime, which was sheltering al-Qaeda leaders.
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