Afghanistan agrees to open its electoral commission to foreigners

Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed Saturday to allow foreign observers to sit on an election commission, reversing a decree that sidestepped international oversight and drew U.S. criticism that he was jeopardizing his government’s credibility.

Karzai’s decision followed weeks of pressure from the international community to improve the legitimacy of elections.

The president’s reelection in August was widely regarded as fraudulent, and his recent decision to do away with foreign monitors further agitated the United Nations.

“The Afghan government has shown its readiness to accept two non-Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission, and this has been announced to the United Nations,” said Waheed Omar, the president’s spokesman.

He said outside monitors were acceptable during the country’s “transitional phase” to democracy.

The board is expected to be in place for parliamentary elections in September.

The reversal came days after Kai Eide, the departing U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, said he was negotiating a compromise on the panel. The U.N.-backed watchdog commission, which stripped the president of nearly 1 million votes in August, had been made up of three foreigners and two Afghans. The new commission will give Afghans the majority.

Donor nations, which have pledged billions of dollars to Afghanistan’s reconstruction, have threatened to curtail funding if Karzai doesn’t undertake political and electoral reforms.

The U.S. and other countries are concerned that election abuse and government corruption are undermining Karzai’s leadership at a time NATO forces are weakening the Taliban. A recent U.S.-led military campaign pushed Taliban fighters from their stronghold in Helmand province. An operation later this year is expected to target militants in Kandahar province.

The announcement on the electoral commission came as Staffan de Mistura, a Swedish diplomat, arrived in Kabul to replace Eide, whose troubled 18-month term was marked by criticism that he was lax in stemming voting violations.

“I am totally aware of the fact that the Afghan people are very proud people, very attached to their own sovereignty and independence, and I will be working along those lines,” said Mistura, the former U.N. mission chief in Iraq. “Whatever the U.N. will be doing -- and we will be doing what we can in order to assist both the stability and the socioeconomic improvement of the Afghan people -- it will be done remembering that it should be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and in total respect of their own sovereignty.”

jeffrey.fleishman @latimes.com