Karzai removes foreign observers who check for electoral fraud

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/24/2828431.htm?section=world

Karzai takes control of election watchdog

Posted Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:37am AEDT

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has signed into law changes that remove foreign observers from the electoral watchdog tasked with reviewing voting fraud.

The move could put Mr Karzai in conflict with Western donors, who have said they will not fund September 18 parliamentary elections without electoral reforms following a 2009 presidential poll beset by massive fraud.

The five-member Electoral Complaints Commission previously had three members appointed by the United Nations, and last year nullified a third of Mr Karzai's votes as fraudulent.

Free and fair elections are part of a Western strategy to return the nation to stability, while a NATO-led military operation battles a renewed Taliban insurgency with the aim of returning all of Afghanistan to the Karzai-led government.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Reminds me of

when Ajerbaijan did something similar accompanied by a notable absense of complaint from the USA.

[damyank913]

2. Why embrace progress when the stone age is working so well for you?

Especially, with the USA supporting your newly acquired "democracy" with their treasure and the blood of their youth.