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Four more Afghan election employees arrested
Associated Press - December 6, 2010
Heidi Vogt, Kabul, Afghanistan – Four Afghan election commission employees have been arrested, an official said Monday in a sign that the political intrigue over September's fraud-tainted parliamentary election is not over.
It's the second round of arrests since the attorney general pledged a wide-ranging investigation over the Sept. 18 vote. Four other commission employees were arrested in late November.
The latest arrests came on Sunday night but the four have not been charged, said Abdullah Ahmadzai, the chief electoral officer of the Independent Election Commission, or IEC. The men worked in logistics and administration for the 2009 presidential election and 2010 parliamentary elections, Ahmadzai said.
Ahmadzai said the men are accused of involvement in the alleged improper selling of $8,000 worth of materials left over from the 2009 presidential race, including ink, pens, paper and tents. He rejected the accusation and said the materials were sold with the permission of UN donors and the money was used to fund operating costs for the commission.
An official at the attorney general's office confirmed the arrests, but did not provide further details.
Many had hoped the Sept. 18 parliamentary vote would prove a success story for the government of President Hamid Karzai after a fraud-marred presidential poll nearly undermined his credibility last year. Instead, the wait for the legislative results dragged on for more than two months amid fraud charges and accusations that the president's office was trying to influence the results.
Karzai-appointed Attorney Gen. Mohammad Ishaq Alako has argued that parliamentary results should not have been released before he finished investigations – a move that prompted the United Nations to warn Alako not to overstep his authority by trying to use criminal investigations to influence poll results.
Even as results were released in late November, Alako threw uncertainty on the process by promising that his investigations would produce evidence that high-level officials were involved in buying and selling the election.
Ahmadzai said the arrests appeared to be a political move by the attorney general, who has been critical of the IEC, and pledged high-level investigations. It was the second round of arrests by Alako since his pledge of a wide-ranging investigation. In late November, two IEC employees and two people working in the money transfer business were arrested.
"I guess the attorney general simply wanted a reason to come into the IEC and detain a few people," Ahmadzai said. He said the staffers were asked to come to the attorney general's office on the pretense that there was paperwork needed from them.
"They were asked to go to the office as part of the attorney general's regular procedures, just to fill out some forms, and they were basically trapped," Ahmadzai said.
He said he met with the four employees late Sunday at the Kabul police headquarters where they were being held. Ahmadzai said the commission is working to secure their release.
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