Registration for Afghan parliamentary election to start this month

Registration of candidates for Afghanistan’s parliamentary election would start within weeks, an official said here Thursday.

“The registration process of candidates for Wolesi Jirga, or the lower house of the parliament, will be started on Jan. 23 and will continue till Feb. 6,” Daud Ali Najafi, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Secretariat, told a press conference.

Afghan MPs reject two-thirds of Karzai’s new cabinet

The senior United Nations diplomat in Afghanistan today warned of yet more political uncertainty in the country after the country’s parliament rejected more than two-thirds of President Hamid Karzai’s long-awaited new government.

Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission, said the refusal by MPs to support 17 out of 24 proposed cabinet ministers would prolong the political paralysis which has gripped the country since the disputed presidential election in August.

Afghanistan’s donors fear May parliamentary election disaster, some mull possibility of delay

Five months before parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, donor nations are worried about another messy vote and some international officials are even discussing whether the polls should be delayed.

After years of encouraging democracy, some Western nations find themselves in the uncomfortable position of wondering whether another round of voting will do more harm than good in the violence-wracked country.

Afghanistan: UK and US seek to cancel 2010 parliamentary election

The two allies are in dispute with European states over whether to fund and secure the elections in the spring or press for postponement until 2011, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The Afghan constitution states elections for the lower house of the parliament and for district councils must be held in May.

U.N. declares Afghan election “credible, legitimate”

The U.N. General Assembly declared on Monday that Afghanistan’s presidential election was both credible and sound, despite allegations of widespread fraud that led critics to question the vote’s legitimacy.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 192-nation assembly also urged the government of re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to press ahead with “strengthening of the rule of law and democratic processes, the fight against corruption (and) the acceleration of justice sector reform.”

Afghan election commission declares Karzai winner

Afghanistan’s election commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the victor of the country’s tumultuous ballot Monday, canceling a planned runoff and ending a political crisis that began with a fraud-marred first round two and a half months ago.

The Obama administration has anxiously been waiting for a government deemed legitimate to emerge in Kabul before announcing whether to deploy tens of thousands more American troops to fight the burgeoning insurgency.

Afghan election commission says runoff canceled

The chief officer on Afghanistan’s election commission says Saturday’s presidential runoff has been canceled.

Daoud Ali Najafi gave no details, but a second senior official on the commission also confirmed the second round has been called off.

President Hamid Karzai had already effectively secured a second term when his only challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday because he said the vote would not be free or fair. The first round was marred by massive fraud.

Sources: Abdullah to pull out of Afghan runoff

Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah plans to boycott next week’s runoff against incumbent Hamid Karzai following a breakdown in talks on how to prevent electoral fraud, two people familiar with the discussions said.

A boycott would severely undermine a vote intended to affirm the Afghan government’s credibility. However, an Abdullah spokesman said no final decision had been made on the candidate’s pullout, and it was possible that word of the boycott was a negotiating tactic by the Abdullah camp.

Afghan election officials fired ahead of run-off

More than half the top Afghan district election officials are being replaced to try to prevent more fraud and produce a credible result in next month’s presidential run-off vote, U.N. officials said on Wednesday.

The move followed an announcement by President Hamid Karzai that he would accept a Nov. 7 run-off, clearing one obstacle for U.S. President Barack Obama as he considers whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.

Karzai Agrees to Run-Off Election in Afghanistan

Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai conceded Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, and agreed to hold a run-off election with his top challenger on Nov. 7.

Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accepting the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly a third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.