Karzai takes control of election watchdog

Moves by the Afghan president to take control of a key election watchdog have dismayed diplomats and analysts who said yesterday there is now even less chance that future polls will be free and fair.
President Hamid Karzai has changed a law to give himself control of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), a body that threw out more than half a million votes cast for him in last year's fraud-tainted polls.
The amendment allows Karzai to appoint all five members of the ECC, whereas under the previous law, three members were appointed by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Former senior UN official in Afghanistan Peter Galbraith said the West should withhold the cash necessary to bankroll future elections until the ECC is reinstated to its original make-up.
The international community "should insist there should be a truly independent election commission, not one appointed by him", Galbraith, who resigned over last year's fraudulent poll, told the BBC.