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Afghan Lawmakers Vow to Meet Despite Karzai Delay

   VOA News  20 January 2011
   Members  of  the  Afghan  parliament  attend  a session in Kabul (file
   photo)

Photo: Reuters

   Members  of  the  Afghan  parliament  attend  a session in Kabul (file
   photo)

   Leading  members  of  Afghanistan's new parliament have said they will
   open  their  session  on  Sunday,  despite  President  Hamid  Karzai's
   decision to postpone the inaugural meeting.
   Lawmakers  said  Thursday a majority of the incoming members agreed to
   convene with or without the president's approval.
   Mr.  Karzai  said  Wednesday he delayed the beginning of parliament to
   February  22  after  a  special  election court asked for more time to
   investigate fraud claims from the September 18 elections.
   The  final results for the 249-seat lower house of parliament were not
   announced  until  December  1, after election officials reviewed about
   5,000 fraud claims.  Those included charges of vote-rigging and voter
   intimidation by local warlords.
   The Independent Election Commission disqualified nearly one quarter of
   the votes and disqualified 24 winning candidates.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

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