Karzai government disputes Afghan election results

Over all, the results of the September election indicated that the 249-seat lower house of Parliament would be dominated by warlords and other power brokers. According to an analysis by the New York Times, Karzai will be able to count on the support of at least 100 members.

That has not been enough to satisfy the Karzai government or the many losers who saw significant numbers of votes thrown out - at least 25 percent of ballots - because of concerns about fraud. The losers have placed enormous pressure on election officials and Karzai to undo some results or even void the election.

The attorney general, Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, gave a sense of the stakes Wednesday when his office released a statement within hours of the announcement of the final results. It criticized the United Nations for endorsing the final results earlier in the day, calling it "premature" and "a huge tragedy for the Afghan nation and the current democratic government."

The statement said that criminal investigations the attorney general's office was considering into the election fraud should have been completed before results were released.

"Unfortunately, that didn't happen," it said. "Therefore this organization declares decisively that it will not confirm the results of the election and promises our countrymen that it will honestly continue to investigate these cases."

While it was unclear what the attorney general's position portended, since there is no legal way for the government to undo the results, it raised the possibility that the government might be willing to precipitate a constitutional crisis.

Earlier this week, Aloko threatened to charge two election officials - Noor Mohammed Noor, spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, and Ahmed Zia Rafat, a commissioner for the Electoral Complaints Commission - with defaming the nation.

In a statement Wednesday, the United Nations defended the results. While the balloting was marred, the process was fair enough and the Afghan election commissions that oversaw the vote had taken a "significant step" to improve democracy, it said.

The government's challenge may contain a measure of political posturing and be intended to influence a decision on the disputed outcome in one important province.

This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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