Pressed to Act, Karzai Fires Election Monitors
April 7, 2010
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
nytimes.com
KABUL, Afghanistan — Under enormous pressure from Western governments, President Hamid Karzai ousted Afghanistan’s top two elections officials, who were seen as sanctioning the widespread fraud that favored him during last year’s presidential race.
But Western diplomats said the significance of the move, which was announced on Wednesday, would not be known until replacements were named and could show whether they were less willing to condone fraud.
“This is something everyone has been hoping for,” said one diplomat, who like other diplomats and Western officials interviewed for this article requested anonymity so they could openly discuss internal Afghan political matters. “But it will only have an impact if they are replaced by people who are better.”
Some officials have already expressed deep concern over one possible replacement, Abdul Karim Khuram, who until a few months ago was minister of information and culture. Mr. Khuram, a Karzai partisan, was criticized last year for pressing broadcasters, including state-run television, to favor Mr. Karzai’s re-election campaign.
His appointment “would be a slap in the face of the international community,” one Western diplomat said, adding that the independence of the election process “would be under question again.”
While firing the two Karzai loyalists was a major demand of Western officials who must decide whether to finance parliamentary elections scheduled for September, it is not the only one. They are also furious about Mr. Karzai’s efforts to emasculate the Electoral Complaints Commission, the country’s only independent election monitor. They are pressing him to back down, but the outcome of that dispute also remains uncertain.
Mr. Karzai foreshadowed the dismissals of the election officials last week during the first in a series of tirades in which he accused American and European officials of committing widespread electoral fraud, and at one private meeting he even threatened to join the Taliban himself.
If he had not ousted the two officials — the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Ludin, and Daoud Ali Najafi, the chief electoral officer — even Mr. Karzai had appeared to acknowledge that he risked losing hundreds of millions of dollars from Western donors for the fall elections.
During the crisis that followed the Aug. 20 presidential election, the two officials served as a rubber stamp for Mr. Karzai, many American and European officials in Kabul said. It fell to the Electoral Complaints Commission — three of whose five members are appointed by the United Nations — to reject one-third of his votes as fraudulent.
The ouster of Mr. Ludin and Mr. Najafi suggests that despite his recent outbursts, Mr. Karzai recognizes, at least at some level, the dependence he and his government still have on Western money and military forces. But the real test remains, Western officials said.
The firings “play well for the international audience, who get what they want and have been asking for,” one diplomat in Kabul said. “But we need to see who the replacements are. It can’t be just cosmetic and symbolic.”
“It may gall Karzai to swallow this,” the diplomat said, “but it had to happen.”
Mr. Karzai made the extent of his irritation clear one week ago, when he complained that “foreigners” had demanded electoral reform.
“When I asked what reform means, it means to sack Mr. Ludin and Mr. Najafi,” he said then, lionizing both men. He also predicted that he might be forced to comply but promised that both officials “will go to other major national posts.”
A spokeswoman for the United States Embassy in Kabul, Caitlin Hayden, said, “We look forward to the Afghan government appointing replacements with the qualifications and integrity needed to support transparent, credible and fair elections.”
Still unresolved as well is Mr. Karzai’s attempt to hijack control of the Electoral Complaints Commission, which forced a presidential runoff election last fall by discarding one million of Mr. Karzai’s votes. The runoff was averted when Mr. Karzai’s most popular rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew his candidacy.
The commission’s statutory power and independence deeply irked Mr. Karzai, who issued a decree in February giving himself the ability to appoint all five members.
But last week, the lower house of Parliament dealt Mr. Karzai a rare rebuke by voting almost unanimously to reject the decree. The upper house declined to vote on the issue, though, and Mr. Karzai’s aides asserted that the decree now stands as law.
Western diplomats, however, say it is not clear whether the decree can be legally enforced. Moreover, they say that if Western countries are not satisfied with conditions for the parliamentary vote, they will not give Afghans money for the elections.
“If it’s not clear what law we are operating under, it’s going to affect whether donors are willing to step forward,” one Western official said. “We want to know what we are funding.”
Sangar Rahimi and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting. |
