KABUL, Mar 1 (Internet): Afghan President Hamid Karzai stepped up a confrontation with his opposition Saturday, ordering this year's presidential election to be moved up by at least three months despite the top election official's concerns that insufficient preparation time, funds and international forces could render the results illegitimate.
Karzai's decree may also intensify tensions with the United States, which backed an Independent Election Commission decision scheduling the vote for August 20 so that an additional 17,000 US troops could be deployed to bolster security.
Some 60,000 troops from the United States and 40 other countries are currently helping Afghan security forces battle the al Qaida-backed Taliban insurgency, and getting reinforcements in place within the next three months presents Washington and its NATO allies a huge challenge.
A vote that is not seen as free and fair could deal a serious blow to the Obama administration's emerging strategy for blunting the insurgency, which relies in part upon rebuilding sagging popular trust in a political system plagued by corruption and incompetence.
"There are concerns about the legitimacy of this vote," said a Western official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The election would be the second democratic presidential contest held since the 2001 US intervention that toppled the Taliban regime.
Karzai said in his decree that the election commission should hold the contest according to the Afghan constitution, which requires that the vote be set within 30 to 60 days of the end of his five-year term on May 21.
The decree did not cite a specific date. The election commission should "make essential arrangements to ensure the conduct of a transparent, fair, free, general, secret and direct ballot election", Karzai said.
