Afghan president appoints new chief of election commission

Apr 17, 2010, 16:39 GMT

Kabul - President Hamid Karzai on Saturday appointed a new head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC).

Fazel Ahmad Manawi, a professor of Islamic Sharia, replaced Azizullah Ludin, who stepped down earlier this month after being accused of complicity in fraud during last year's controversial presidential election won by Karazi.

Ludin resigned along with Daoud Ali Najafi, the chief electoral officer, who has not yet been replaced.

The appointment of Manawi, who served as a lower-ranking member of the IEC that conducted the vote, was announced by presidential spokesman Waheed Omar.

Karzai's opponents and some Western officials had accused Ludin and other IEC members of rigging the elections in favour of Karzai.

The president, for his part, annoyed his Western backers by accusing some of them of committing fraud in the August 20 vote in a bid to undermine his position.

The role of the IEC prompted the international community to refuse funding parliamentary elections, scheduled for May, forcing the government to postpone them until September 18.

Following Saturday's announcement, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mastura, hailed the appointment of Manawi.

'I am satisfied that I can now recommend to the donor community that plans for the upcoming elections merit their release of funds so that technical and logistical support to the elections can begin,' he told a news conference in Kabul.

The UN also appointed two international vote monitors for the Election Complaint Commission on Saturday, the UN envoy said. They are Judge Johan Kriegler, a former chairman of the election body in South Africa and Safwat Sidqi, a former member of Iraqi electoral commission.

The ECC, which had three international vote monitors during last year's presidential election, exposed fraudulent ballot counting, mainly in favor of the president, and threw out one third of Karzai's votes.

Karzai later issued a decree designed to give him a greater say in the appointment of ECC members, but this was rejected by lower house of parliament last month, leaving the electoral law approved in 2005 intact.