The development comes less than a month before the 249-seat parliament convenes on Jan. 20, and it remains unclear if the tribunal can make any decisions that could alter the final result, which has been accepted by the international community.
But it is sure to complicate the tainted election process and bring more doubt about Afghanistan's ability to govern itself as the U.S.-led coalition makes plans to gradually hand over responsibility for the country to its own security forces by 2014.
President Hamid Karzai issued a decree Sunday empowering the five-member tribunal, his legal adviser Nasrullah Stanekzai said Monday.
The tribunal was initially proposed by the nine-member Supreme Court after it received scores of complaints about fraud and corruption forwarded by the attorney general's office, said court spokesman Abdul Wakel Omary.
The court will investigate legal issues associated with the complaints and, if necessary, refer any cases to the anti-corruption courts for trial and sentencing, Omary added.
Election officials insist that neither the attorney general nor the Supreme Court have the authority to change the final results issued on Nov. 24.
The Independent Elections Commission, however, did not rule out that criminal cases could be brought against individual officials or candidates on corruption issues.
Afghanistan's Sept. 18 ballot was plagued by irregularities and voter intimidation. Election officials discarded 1.3 million ballots - nearly a quarter of the total - for fraud and disqualified 19 winning candidates for cheating. The attorney general's office also opened a separate investigation into allegations of ballot manipulation.
Attorney Gen. Mohammad Ishaq Alako said earlier this month that votes were bought and sold to such an extent that the results could be invalid.
This article appeared on page A - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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