Up to 10 Afghan MPs to be fired

Up to 10 Afghan MPs may be thrown out of parliament following a review of last year's controversial election results, Afghanistan election authorities say. At least 25 people were killed in three different attacks on Thursday.

Reuters

President Hamid Karzai last week handed authority for resolving widespread charges of fraud in last year’s general election to the Independent Election Commission (IEC).

"Some changes may likely be brought in the election results," an IEC spokesman, Tabesh Frough, told the AFP news agency, saying that the decision may be announced next week.

A senior official at the IEC speaking under condition of anonymity told AFP that the final decision was "imminent" with "up to 10 MPs" likely to change.

He said the MPs will be replaced by those whose votes had earlier been cancelled as fraudulent by Election Complaint Commission (ECC), a US-backed election watchdog.

Karzai scrapped a special election tribunal that he had created to rule on the election dispute last week and closed election investigations by other government bodies, handing the authority to the IEC.

The tribunal had ordered 62 MPs out of parliament.

Bomb attacks killed at least 25 people in Afghanistan today.

• Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed when a minibus was destroyed by a roadside bomb, the Herat provincial government said;
• A woman was killed and seven men were wounded when their truck hit another improvised bomb in Herat province, in the east of the country;
• Two Afghan guards died when a suicide car bombing at a US-run base in the eastern province of Paktia.