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Karzai Agrees to Seat New Afghan Parliament
Ahmad Masood/Reuters
Members of the new Parliament, who hope to convene Sunday, met Saturday at a hotel in Kabul.
By ROD NORDLAND
Published: January 22, 2011
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai backed down on Saturday from his plan to put off the inauguration of a new Parliament by another month, agreeing to convene it this week after intense pressure from legislators and the international community.
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog »
Angered by the president’s repeated delays in their inauguration, the newly elected members of Parliament insisted that they would convene themselves on Sunday if he did not. The showdown could have caused a constitutional crisis, as only the president has the legal power to inaugurate Parliament.
Mr. Karzai rushed back to Kabul on Saturday from an official visit to Moscow to try to mend fences, and invited the 249 members of Parliament’s important lower house for lunch at the Presidential Palace. The lunch dragged on past dinnertime, but finally legislators persuaded the president to inaugurate Parliament on Wednesday, only three days later than they had threatened.
It was the latest twist in yet another electoral embarrassment for Afghanistan and its international backers, who financed the $150 million cost of last year’s parliamentary elections and set up elaborate precautions to prevent the sort of widespread fraud that discredited Mr. Karzai’s own election in 2009.
On Friday, after days of closed-door meetings, the United Nations rallied Western allies to break their silence on the crisis by issuing a statement calling for Parliament to convene “as soon as possible.” Several Western diplomats let it be known that their ambassadors planned to attend the inauguration on Sunday if Parliament had gone ahead with the plan.
The election was held four months ago, on Sept. 18, and its results were declared final by Nov. 24. The new legislators wanted to convene in December, but Mr. Karzai delayed that repeatedly and has since governed by decree.
His announcement last week that he would delay this weekend’s inauguration for another month provoked the lawmakers to threaten to act on their own, and they were in no mood to compromise when they came to the palace.
“It was not a very pleasant meeting,” said Khalid Pashtun, a member of Parliament from Kandahar.
Mr. Karzai said he had to postpone the inauguration at the request of a special court that he and the Supreme Court set up to hear complaints of fraud from losing candidates. Lawmakers told him, however, that the court was an unconstitutional sham.
“We would accept his excuses if it was the first time he delayed Parliament, but Karzai has been doing this for the past several months,” said Qazi Nazir Ahmad, a lawmaker from Herat.
The acting Parliament secretary, Naheed Farid, said 232 members of Parliament had signed an agreement accepting the delay until Wednesday. Other lawmakers said the agreement avoided settling the status of the special court, but agreed to continue negotiating that issue.
Mr. Karzai was clearly unhappy with the results of the election and the composition of the new Parliament. He had a fraught relationship with the last Parliament, and the new one has even fewer of his supporters — particularly because many members of his Pashtun ethnic group were among hundreds of candidates disqualified because of fraud.
The Independent Election Commission, which under Afghan law has the final say in election matters, threw out a quarter of the votes, but in the end certified the results as final and legal; the United Nations and Afghanistan’s Western allies promptly accepted them.
The chairman of the commission, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, said in an interview on Saturday that he met with Mr. Karzai on Wednesday and told him that the commission was willing to try to help: For instance, if a spot check of selected polling places would reassure the losing candidates, then the commission might be able to organize that, he said.
However, he and the commission’s chief electoral officer, Abdullah Ahmadzai, were adamant that a total recount would not be feasible because of the cost and the time required. “When I said that a nationwide recount is not possible, logistically, the president suggested I meet with the chief justice,” said Mr. Manawi, adding that his meeting with the chief justice also yielded little in the way of specifics.
Ahmad Masood/ReutersMembers of the new Parliament, who hope to convene Sunday, met Saturday at a hotel in Kabul.
By ROD NORDLAND
Published: January 22, 2011
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KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai backed down on Saturday from his plan to put off the inauguration of a new Parliament by another month, agreeing to convene it this week after intense pressure from legislators and the international community.
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog »
Angered by the president’s repeated delays in their inauguration, the newly elected members of Parliament insisted that they would convene themselves on Sunday if he did not. The showdown could have caused a constitutional crisis, as only the president has the legal power to inaugurate Parliament.
Mr. Karzai rushed back to Kabul on Saturday from an official visit to Moscow to try to mend fences, and invited the 249 members of Parliament’s important lower house for lunch at the Presidential Palace. The lunch dragged on past dinnertime, but finally legislators persuaded the president to inaugurate Parliament on Wednesday, only three days later than they had threatened.
It was the latest twist in yet another electoral embarrassment for Afghanistan and its international backers, who financed the $150 million cost of last year’s parliamentary elections and set up elaborate precautions to prevent the sort of widespread fraud that discredited Mr. Karzai’s own election in 2009.
On Friday, after days of closed-door meetings, the United Nations rallied Western allies to break their silence on the crisis by issuing a statement calling for Parliament to convene “as soon as possible.” Several Western diplomats let it be known that their ambassadors planned to attend the inauguration on Sunday if Parliament had gone ahead with the plan.
The election was held four months ago, on Sept. 18, and its results were declared final by Nov. 24. The new legislators wanted to convene in December, but Mr. Karzai delayed that repeatedly and has since governed by decree.
His announcement last week that he would delay this weekend’s inauguration for another month provoked the lawmakers to threaten to act on their own, and they were in no mood to compromise when they came to the palace.
“It was not a very pleasant meeting,” said Khalid Pashtun, a member of Parliament from Kandahar.
Mr. Karzai said he had to postpone the inauguration at the request of a special court that he and the Supreme Court set up to hear complaints of fraud from losing candidates. Lawmakers told him, however, that the court was an unconstitutional sham.
“We would accept his excuses if it was the first time he delayed Parliament, but Karzai has been doing this for the past several months,” said Qazi Nazir Ahmad, a lawmaker from Herat.
The acting Parliament secretary, Naheed Farid, said 232 members of Parliament had signed an agreement accepting the delay until Wednesday. Other lawmakers said the agreement avoided settling the status of the special court, but agreed to continue negotiating that issue.
Mr. Karzai was clearly unhappy with the results of the election and the composition of the new Parliament. He had a fraught relationship with the last Parliament, and the new one has even fewer of his supporters — particularly because many members of his Pashtun ethnic group were among hundreds of candidates disqualified because of fraud.
The Independent Election Commission, which under Afghan law has the final say in election matters, threw out a quarter of the votes, but in the end certified the results as final and legal; the United Nations and Afghanistan’s Western allies promptly accepted them.
The chairman of the commission, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, said in an interview on Saturday that he met with Mr. Karzai on Wednesday and told him that the commission was willing to try to help: For instance, if a spot check of selected polling places would reassure the losing candidates, then the commission might be able to organize that, he said.
However, he and the commission’s chief electoral officer, Abdullah Ahmadzai, were adamant that a total recount would not be feasible because of the cost and the time required. “When I said that a nationwide recount is not possible, logistically, the president suggested I meet with the chief justice,” said Mr. Manawi, adding that his meeting with the chief justice also yielded little in the way of specifics.