Afghanistan sets date for elections
The chief officer of Afghanistan’s elections commission said today a parliamentary vote will be held in May despite widespread international concern the country’s electoral system needs serious reform.
Ali Najafi said the national vote will be held May 22.
However, he said Afghanistan needs about $50m (€35m) from the international community to meet the election’s estimated budget of $120m (€84m). It was not clear whether the vote would or could be held if donor countries don’t provide the money.
In the wake of last August’s heavily disputed presidential election, many critics have pushed President Hamid Karzai and his government to delay the parliamentary vote. Karzai has insisted the constitution, which specifies the elections be held by May, must be observed.
A US Congressional delegation that met with Karzai in Kabul last week said it had warned the president holding the election without first enacting substantive electoral reform could undermine support for US aid to the country.
Also today, Karzai visited the southern province of Helmand to express condolences to relatives of civilians allegedly killed in an airstrike.
Helmand provincial governor spokesman Dawud Ahmadi, who confirmed the president’s visit to the town of Lashkar Gah, said an attack by international forces on Wednesday killed seven civilians and two Taliban insurgents.
Civilian casualties is a sensitive issue facing foreign forces in Afghanistan. Nato says it’s investigating the allegation.
The incident in Helmand was the second claim of civilian deaths in allied attacks in a week. The Afghan government said last week 10 people were killed, including eight schoolchildren, in a village in eastern Kunar province in a raid by international forces.
Meanwhile the Afghan parliament today began voting on Karzai’s list of nominees for his new Cabinet. The list, announced last month, keeps US favourites in several posts critical to the war and reconstruction. But some lawmakers criticised it as signalling more of the same from a government that has been criticised as ineffective and corrupt.
