KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has banned thousands of election staff from working this year's parliamentary polls.
A spokesman for the electoral body said Thursday the ban stemmed from an internal investigation into last year's flawed presidential election, which saw Hamid Karzai returned to power amid allegations of fraud.
Noor Mohammad Noor told The Canadian Press that 6,000 of the 165,000 contract staff who worked for the presidential election will not be allowed on future votes.
"We have identified about 6,000 who didn't work in a proper way according to our procedure," Noor said. "They won't be allowed to (return to) their jobs."
More workers could face bans as the investigation unfolds, he said, adding the ban so far only applies to contract staff who were hired to work at polling stations.
Authorities threw out more than a million ballots from the presidential election last August, which was marred by widespread vote rigging, low voter turnout and a general lack of security.
A second vote was called, but Karzai was declared the winner after his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out over concerns about the fairness of the election.
Thursday's move comes after the election commission announced last month it would push back a parliamentary vote scheduled for May 22 to Sept. 18.
Election officials say the delay is needed to give the government time to learn from and fix the mistakes that plagued the presidential vote.
The commission has also said moving back the election date gives the government more time to raise the cash needed to pay for the vote.
Money has been slow to trickle in from donor countries wary of a repeat of last year's problems.
Fazil Manawi, a senior commissioner, told reporters last month the commission needs about $50 million from the international community to pay for the parliamentary election, which is budgeted to cost $120 million.
Manawi also cited logistical challenges and security concerns as obstacles to a spring vote.
The ban comes amid a growing weariness within the international community toward the Karzai government.
Western officials privately complain the thing most holding back progress in Afghanistan is the government in Kabul.
A recent report by the United Nations found corruption to be the top concern for Afghans, even more so than insecurity or unemployment.
But the country's finance minister dismissed the report, based on interviews with 7,600 people across Afghanistan, saying it was "full of flaws."
"Corruption exists, we are committed to eliminating it, but what makes us unhappy is that people make either a political statement of the corruption or use it for personal promotion," Finance Minister Omar Zakhailwal said last month.
Western backers have urged the Afghan government to crack down on corruption as it staves off a resurgent Taliban insurgency.
Karzai recently announced a plan to woo Taliban foot soldiers into Afghanistan's mainstream with financial and other incentives.
The scheme to split the Taliban emerged from a recent international conference in London.
The plan involves paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to low-and mid-level Talibs in the hopes they'll defect.
But William Crosbie, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, has said the gesture could backfire if peaceful Afghans perceive the Taliban as being favoured.
