A plan for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to open a new parliament this week looked in question yesterday as an official source said his attendance was “conditional” and fresh talks with lawmakers were announced.
The source, speaking anonymously, said Karzai’s attendance on Wednesday depended on lawmakers accepting the authority of a Supreme Court special tribunal on electoral fraud in last September’s parliamentary polls.
“What’s being said about the opening of the parliament on Wednesday, that’s conditional,” the source said.
Asked if Karzai would open the parliament on Wednesday if the members of parliament (MPs) fail to accept his demand, the source said: “I don’t think so.”
Meanwhile, MP Molawi Rahman Rahmani said a fresh round of talks between Karzai and MPs was set to be held today, adding that most lawmakers wanted to see the special tribunal abolished.
“The same 38 people [who held talks with Karzai on Saturday] are going to talk to Karzai regarding the abolishing of the special tribunal,” he said.
“We are going to inaugurate the parliament on Wednesday” with or without Karzai, Rahmani added, while saying he thought that Karzai would “probably” be there.
Rebel Afghan lawmakers met yesterday to thrash out their position on a deal they say their representatives struck with Karzai late on Saturday to inaugurate parliament.
The talks came after Karzai said last week that he would delay the opening, originally due yesterday, for a month, to allow further fraud investigations by a judicial tribunal.
The lawmakers were debating whether to agree that Afghan -Supreme Court rather than the tribunal can rule on electoral fraud.
Many winning candidates reject the authority of the special tribunal, branding it unconstitutional. They had vowed to convene parliament on their own yesterday in protest. It is thought that more than 200 of 249 lawmakers want the tribunal abolished.
Meanwhile, about 200 people gathered outside a mosque in Kabul yesterday to protest Karzai’s decision to inaugurate parliament this week rather than waiting a month for fraud investigations to wrap up.
The protesters crowded around losing candidate Najibullah Mujahid of Kabul Province, who shouted through a megaphone that the president had caved to outside pressure.
“This is an illegal parliament! This parliament should not be inaugurated!” Mujahid said.
His supporters said that thousands of votes that had been cast for him had never appeared in the tally.
Investigations could still wreak havoc on the parliament as it begins work. While the judicial tribunal appointed to reinvestigate fraud in the election has been rejected as unconstitutional by the Afghan electoral bodies and the international community, the judges say they can overturn results or even nullify the election.
And even if the court does not try to change results of the vote, a conviction of any candidate for fraud could give them basis for revoking their seat. The -Constitution says that no one who has been convicted of a crime can run for seat in the legislature.
There are 59 winning candidates among the cases the court plans to consider, according to Sadiqullah Haqiq, the head of the five-judge tribunal. The tribunal had requested the delay to finish looking into these cases. A spokesman for the tribunal declined to comment on Karzai’s change of heart.
The authority of the legislature has already been thrown into question by the renewed investigation after the official anti-fraud watchdog completed an extensive probe. The anti-fraud panel threw out 1.3 million ballots — nearly a quarter of the total — and disqualified 19 winning candidates before final results were issued on Nov. 24.
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