Analysts: Karzai's supporters win majority of elected posts

Most of the winning candidates ran as independents.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Supporters of Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared to have won a majority of seats in the country's landmark parliamentary elections, observers said Saturday, as final results were announced amid continued violence.
The polls were hailed as a success in the country's slow march toward democracy, although their legitimacy has been undermined by suspected ballot-box stuffing that led to the dismissal of 50 election workers, as well as alarm that more than half of the winners are former regional strongmen.
Nearly all winning candidates in the September elections ran as independents, making it difficult to determine where power will lie in the 249-seat legislature. But Western diplomats and other political analysts said it appeared that supporters of the U.S.-backed Karzai dominate.
"The government has the support of more than 50 percent in the parliament," said Ali Amiri, a respected political analyst and local author on Afghan affairs. "There are some small opposition groups but nothing big enough to challenge Karzai."
A Western diplomat in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity, also confirmed that Karzai's supporters hold a slim majority, saying his rivals were splintered along factional lines and not a serious threat.
Unrest
In the latest violence, militants pulled a deputy provincial governor from his car and fatally shot him before killing a former district chief as he prayed in a mosque. Three policemen also were killed as the country's death toll from fighting neared 1,500 for the year, the deadliest since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. This year's death toll includes 86 U.S. troops.
The parliamentary polls were seen as the final formal step toward Afghanistan's having a representative government after a quarter-century of war that left more than 1 million people dead. The $159 million elections were funded mainly by the United States and other Western countries.
However, doubts remain about the vote's legitimacy. Results were initially scheduled to be released last month but were delayed repeatedly by inquiries into widespread fraud. Some leading candidates demanded a vote recount, but election organizers ruled that out.
Violent pasts
A number of Karzai's supporters also have violent pasts, including Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful militia leader accused of war crimes by New York-based Human Rights Watch, and Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban commander who has since reconciled with the government.
Another winner was the former Taliban leader who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the fundamentalists' reign.
Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said more than half of the winners are regional strongmen, raising fears they will block efforts to reform government and bring to justice those responsible for years of bloodshed.
Women's voice
Despite the setbacks, the elections were welcomed by many, especially women, who have never had a strong voice in Afghan politics. A quarter of the parliamentary seats are reserved for women, and 68 were named new lawmakers.
"The women in parliament will be a voice for the half of this country who have been silent for so long," Safia Siddiqi, a winning candidate from the eastern city of Jalalabad, told The Associated Press.
Parliament is expected to convene in the third week of December, Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, said last week.
Many had hoped the election would sideline Taliban rebels, but there has been no sign of a let up in the insurgency.
Rebels stepped up attacks recently on prominent pro-Karzai officials, religious leaders and others in their campaign.
Karzai appeared on state television Saturday to urge the rebels to "give up destroying their country and participate in its reconstruction."
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