Karzai wants 17 poll candidates introduced to parliament

KABUL after a special court disqualified 62 sitting MPs, a reliable source told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday.

The election commission has secretly sent a copy of the list to United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura to seek his opinion, the source said.

The list contains candidates who were first declared winners and then losers as a result of a probe into fraud allegations. The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission threw out nearly one-fourth of the votes cast in the September election.

The list includes Hamidullah Tokhi and Mohammad Ismail from Zabul, Ahmad Khan Samangani from Samangan, Aziz Ahmad Naadem, Ahmad Waheed Tahiri, Rahima Jamiand Nisar Ahmad Faizi Ghoryani from Herat, Niaz Mohammad Amir Lalai and Hashmatullah Khalil Karzai from Kandahar, Haji Muallim Mir Wali from Helmand, Wahidullah Kaleemzai from Maiodan Wardak, Mohammad Rahim Katawzai and Mahmood Khan Sulaimankhel from Paktika, Saranwal Abdul Rauf from Badakhshan, Ashiqullah Wafa and Mohammad Nasdeem Mudabbir from Baghlan.

When contacted, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Nilab Mubariz, said the UN had no information about the list.

Officials at the election commission declined to comment about the list.

It is not clear that whether the 17 individuals would be allowed to sit in Parliament, or who they would replace.

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