Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Karzai Forms Delegation to Address Election Issues

Karzai Forms Delegation to Address Election Issues

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai has assembled a special delegation to work on solutions to problems that have cropped up around the election process over the past week, Attorney General Mohammad Ishaq Aloko said on Monday.

Speaking at a gathering held in Kabul by the Qizilbashan Public Council, Mr. Aloko said that Karzai is actively working to resolve the disputes between presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, his opponent Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and the election commissions.

"President Karzai appointed a delegation to find an agreement," Aloko said. "The Attorney General's office has not yet received any issue about the election and hopes not to receive any in the future either; we hope the issues of the election will be solved."

The Attorney General did not specify who was on Karzai's delegation, but indicated that it included tribal elders. "There are some elders working on the issue and Karzai has asked the two candidates to meet with each other," he said. "We believe in two candidates, they are very popular figures."

The election process took a controversial turn shortly after Election Day when presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah began launching accusations of fraud against the election commissions, his opponent and Karzai himself. Abdullah demanded the suspension of a top election official and decided to boycott the Independent Election Commission (IEC) when his demand went unmet. He also called for the voting process to be stopped.

Although the election official, IEC Secretariat Chief Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, announced his resignation on Monday following the release of a audio tape allegedly recording a phone conversation in which he plans ballot stuffing for the runoff, it remains unclear what will become of the election process. Amarkhail denied any wrongdoing and said the recordings were fake.

Abdullah held a press conference following the resignation announcement and expressed satisfaction, though he said it only "opened the door" to negotiations with the IEC over how to move forward with the vote counting and fraud investigations processes.

Meanwhile, political analysts have applauded Karzai's initiative, but emphasized that it must only seek to get the candidates talking with each other productively, and not impose too much on the process.

"The agreement does not mean that a coalition government is going to form," Kabul University lecturer Nasrullah Stanekzai said. "The agreement means to have them communicate and understand each other, so any step which is taken for national sovereignty is good." (Tolonews)