U.N. Dispatch: Presidential Decree De-Fangs Afghanistan’s Election Watchdog

"by UNA MOORE

Eleven days ago, I heard a rumor that the office of President Hamid Karzai had re-written Afghanistan’s Election Law in ways that would deal a blow to the country’s beleaguered democrats. The changes had gone into force through a presidential decree, I was told. While the international press was still quiet, ripples of alarm were already spreading through Kabul-based civil society.

The story is out now, and the worst has been confirmed.

Among other changes, the decree gives the president the power to appoint all five members of the country’s election watchdog, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), the formerly U.N.-backed body that uncovered massive fraud during last year’s presidential election. Before, three of the commissioners were appointed by the U.N., one by the Supreme Court, and one by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), a body accused of favoring the incumbent president last August.

Former U.N. senior political adviser Gerard Russell described the decree in a Guardian comment "
War is Boring