Karzai names election officials

President Hamid Karzai named officials on Saturday to oversee a parliamentary election, sealing a compromise with the United Nations and ending a damaging standoff with the West.

Karzai’s quarrel with Western donors over rules for September’s vote led to a diplomatic shouting match with Washington this month that brought relations between the wartime allies to a new low.

In Saturday’s announcement, Karzai put a former judge and legal scholar in charge of the election commission, and also named an Iraqi and a South African to a separate election fraud panel, satisfying international pressure to include foreigners.

Donors had threatened to withhold funds to pay for the election if reforms were not implemented to reduce the chance of a repetition of the fraud that occurred in last year’s presidential vote.

Karzai, meanwhile, had tried to reduce foreign influence on the process.

The head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, said he would now recommend that Western donors release funds to pay for the vote.

The changes were part of a compromise hammered out to avert a standoff between Karzai, donors and parliament, he said.

The U.S. Embassy and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led International Security Assistance Force issued statements praising the deal.