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Afghan parliament prepares to convene
By HEIDI VOGT and AMIR SHAH,Associated Press -
Wednesday, January 26
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KABUL, Afghanistan – The newly elected Afghan parliament was set to convene for the first time Wednesday following a protracted battle over how to investigate electoral fraud from the messy September vote.
President Hamid Karzai was expected to swear in the legislature's 249 members in a ceremony that is seen as a victory for the lawmakers, who forced the president to back down from a plan to delay the opening session by one month to allow judicial investigations into fraud to finish.
Early Wednesday, police had closed off roads more than a half a mile (1 kilometer) away from the parliamentary building in Kabul in an effort to secure the area. Officers also swarmed around the auditorium where the ceremony will take place as candidates arrived, some wearing suits and others dressed in traditional robes.
The legislators won the concession by threatening to start their work this past Sunday _ the date originally scheduled for the session to open _ without Karzai's endorsement.
A standoff between parliament and the president could have brought the government to a standstill in this already turbulent country where NATO and U.S. forces are fighting a stubborn Taliban resistance.
But there is still uncertainty surrounding the legislature.
Losing candidates continue to press their case that they have been wronged. More than 100 of the losers met with Karzai at the presidential palace on Tuesday and accused him of caving to pressure from the Western countries that back his government. They have said parliament should not open until all investigations finish.
On Wednesday, a worker inside the palace said about 160 candidates had spent the night there, refusing to leave until their concerns were addressed. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not an official spokesman.
And there is still no resolution about the powers of a disputed five-judge tribunal that Karzai has backed to renew fraud investigations. The judges on the tribunal say they have the authority to order recounts and even nullify the entire election if needed.
Afghan election officials and international advisers have condemned the tribunal's assertions as overstepping both the constitution and electoral law. An official watchdog panel already investigated allegations of fraud _ and threw out votes and disqualified candidates _ before results were certified in late November. Afghan electoral law says that no other body can change the results.
Karzai's office said in a statement that he explained to the losing candidates that the tribunal will fully investigate their charges of extensive fraud.
The head of the tribunal has said that they plan to hear cases against 59 winning candidates.
Any criminal convictions could also disrupt the legislature. The constitution does not give parliamentarians immunity from conviction for a crime, but does say that the legislature has to give permission before any sitting parliamentarian can serve jail time. The constitution does not address whether lawmakers convicted of a crime will be removed from the legislature.
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