Karzai ousts top election officials

KABUL – In an apparent capitulation to international pressure, the government of President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday announced the removal of two top election officials who were implicated in widespread fraud in last summer’s presidential elections.

The legal framework for upcoming parliamentary elections has been a key point of contention between Karzai and Western governments. Karzai has resisted demands for what diplomats called “root-and-branch” reform of Afghanistan’s electoral system prior to the parliamentary vote, which is set for September.

Word of the electoral shake-up came from Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, who told reporters in Kabul that Azizullah Ludin, the director of the Independent Electoral Commission, had stepped down, together with Daoud Ali Najafi, the commission’s chief electoral advisor.