Raymond Barrett

Sunday Business Post
By Raymond Barrett in Washington

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has strengthened his control on the country’s political infrastructure by wresting control of a key component of the electoral system from the United Nations.

Karzai issued a decree last week giving himself the power to appoint all five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), the organisation charged with monitoring elections and ensuring fairness and impartiality.

The move has raised eyebrows among diplomats and security experts, who have consistently touted electoral transparency and combating corruption as the long-term solutions to Afghanistan’s ongoing civil strife.

With this decree, Karzai has established himself as both gamekeeper and poacher of any future elections. During the tainted presidential elections held last August, which were riddled with accusations of corruption, the EEC ruled that nearly a million votes cast in favour of Karzai were fraudulent.

At that time, three members of this five-person commission were UN appointees, and their ability to challenge Karzai was heralded as a small step in the right direction for a nascent democracy.

However, British foreign secretary David Miliband echoed the concerns of many Nato members last Thursday, when he spoke before the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

‘‘The ECC played a very important role in exposing the fraud that took place in the presidential elections,” he said.

‘‘With parliamentary elections planned for this September, it is very important that that sort of check continues to be able to exercise an influence.”

The controversy comes as the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is involved in major combat operations against Taliban militants in the southern Helmand province.

Another key goal of Operation Moshtarak is to improve security for the civilian population and thus deprive the Taliban of support from the local population. However, the effectiveness of this counter-insurgency strategy will certainly be compromised if the Taliban can portray the Afghan army and foreign troops as allies of a corrupt and illegitimate president.

Furthermore, a suicide attack last Friday in the capital Kabul, which killed 17 (and later claimed by the Taliban), showed the difficulty of defeating an enemy that prefers ‘asymmetric’ warfare.

Since grasping the reins of power in December 2001,Karzai seems to be morphing from a reformer lauded by western governments into yet another regional autocrat, increasingly tainted by allegations of corruption and scandal. The Afghan government (including Karzai’s own brother) has been linked to the opium trade.

Miliband echoed broader concerns among the international community that Karzai may not be the ideal partner as they pursue their ‘nation building’ project in Afghanistan.

‘‘We will have to see who he appoints, because that will be an important indication of the kind of independence that might exist or not,” he said. ‘‘I think that it is very important that we are able to have Afghan partners – led by the president – who are able to deliver on the commitments that they have made.”