A complicated procedural row over how to run a September parliamentary election has emerged as a major bone of contention in the country, prompting an anti-Western tirade by Karzai on Thursday that drew a sharp rebuke from Washington.
Karzai issued his decree in February stripping the United Nations of the authority to appoint the majority of members of an election fraud watchdog, claiming that power for himself.
The elected lower house of parliament voted unanimously on Wednesday to overrule Karzai’s decree. But the upper house’s leadership excluded the lower house’s proposal from its own agenda yesterday, meaning the veto will not come up for a vote there, and apparently ensuring that Karzai’s decree still stands.
Fazl Hadi Muslimyar, first deputy head of the upper house, told Reuters the body’s leaders had concluded that parliament lacked the power to rule on electoral laws within a year of an election, and therefore could not place the veto on the agenda.
Ahmed Behzad, a member of the lower house and a critic of Karzai, accused the president of pressuring the upper house to back his decree. Karzai appoints a third of upper house members.
“I think there was pressure from the palace, from Mr Karzai, on the senate on this,” Behzad told Reuters.
