Afghan election crisis is internal issue, says Karzai aide

Jun 27, 2011, 13:35 GMT

Kabul - The ongoing election crisis in Afghanistan was an internal issue in which the government would not allow any outside intervention, President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman said Monday.

The comment came a day after Afghan parliamentarians asked the United Nations to support the lower house of parliament, also known as Wolesi Jirga, in a row between them and Karzai's government.

Last week a special tribunal, formed by Karzai to investigate fraud in the September election, partly overturned the election results and decided to unseat a quarter of parliamentarians.

'Afghanistan's democratic institutions must resolve these election issues in accordance with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,' UN special envoy to Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura told parliamentarians on Sunday.

Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omar said the issue would be resolved internally and according to the Afghan constitution.

'No single person, Afghan or non-Afghan, or no single institution, is going to be allowed to make a judgement over what is constitutional and what is not constitutional,' Omar told journalists at a press conference.

'The president is working on it,' he added. 'The only way to resolve the election crisis is by referring to Afghanistan's constitution.'

Omar also said state institutions should be allowed to exercise their responsibility and find a solution.

The wrangling between the beleaguered Afghan president and parliamentarians is expected to plunge the country deper into political crisis, a week after the United States announced the withdrawal of 33,000 troops by September 2012.