Karzai appoints new members of electoral body

AFP/Kabul

The nine members were picked from a 27-member list of candidates introduced to Karzai by a selection committee.

Afghanistan is due to elect a new president and council members for its 34 provinces on April 5, with Karzai himself barred from running after serving a maximum two terms.

Abdul Rahman Hotaki, a human rights activist; Hussain Gurziwani and Suleiman Hamid, former election commissioners; Sharifa Zurmati Wardak, a former MP; Sareer Ahmad Barmak and Aziz Bakhtyari were appointed as new members.

Also chosen were Ahmad Yousif Nooristani, Karzai’s appointed former governor of Herat; Gulalai Asekzai and Laila Harar.

Analysts said Karzai, by appointing these members, was trying to create a team to support his preferred successor.

“All these people have very close ties to President Karzai. He never selects people who are not affiliated to him,” writer and analyst Ahmad Saeedi said.

Ahmad Nader Naderi, head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, described as “questionable” the selection committee’s decision to send a list to the president with no members of civil society.

“In fact it is illegal,” he said.

The new members will serve on the Independent Election Commission which is responsible for administration of the polls.

This month Karzai approved a bill tightening up the appointments procedure for a separate Election Complaints Commission, which was integral to unmasking massive fraud at the last presidential election in 2009.

The complaints commission investigated thousands of grievances, mostly related to alleged ballot-rigging by Karzai’s supporters.

A corrupt election next April and a contested result would undermine efforts to establish a functioning state after US-led Nato combat troops withdraw in 2014.

It remains unclear who will run for president.

Among a long list of possible candidates are Qayum Karzai, the president’s brother, Omar Daudzai, a former chief of staff, and warlord-turned-governor Atta Mohamed Noor.

Meanwhile, an official said yesterday that Afghan security forces are ready to provide security for polling centres, a mammoth test ahead of next year’s landmark elections.

Afghanistan had already begun voting registration to more than 400 polling centers in all 34 provinces countrywide.

“Today we have handed over our security plans for next year’s elections to IEC, and we have assured them of adequate security for 6,845 polling centers for next year’s elections,” Sediq Sediqqi, interior ministry spokesman told reporters in Kabul.

“The Afghan police, army, and intelligence forces are able to take security of the voting registration centers for next year’s elections,” Sediqqi said.

On Saturday, the Elections Commission announced there were four districts — Kaker in Zabul, Nawa in Ghazni, Deshu and Baghran in Helmand — that were not under government control.

Those places have not received registration materials. But Sediqqi said they were working to provide security for those insecure parts ahead of elections.

In May, the IEC started registering new voters for the 2014 elections opening 41 centres in primarily urban areas and registering around 130,000 new voters so far.

Some 4mn names are expected to be added to the electoral roll, currently containing 16mn voters, before polls in April 2014, though many Afghans fear that the date could be delayed due to the threat of attack by the Taliban insurgency.