Agencies  --  Arab News

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan, 13 June 2004 — Stone-throwing supporters of an Afghan regional leader have prevented a new governor appointed by President Hamid Karzai from taking office in a northern province, residents said yesterday.

In the latest challenge to Karzai’s efforts to expand his influence in the restive provinces, dozens of people hurled rocks at the convoy of the new governor of Sari Pul, Abdul Haq Shafaq, when he arrived on Friday to take up his position. Despite the protection of 100 armed policemen sent from Kabul, Shafaq was forced to return to Mazar-e-Sharif, the key city in northern Afghanistan, when one of his escort was wounded, witnesses and police said.

The stone-throwers were mostly supporters of Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek general who is supposed to be an adviser to Karzai but has resisted efforts to bring the north under the control of the central government, they said. The crowd was protesting against Shafaq being appointed in place of Taj Mohammad Kohi, an ally of Dostum.

Dostum denied any link with the protest, which he described as a spontaneous show of support. “What is going on is the anger of people toward Kabul,” he said.

Mazar-e-Sharif’s police chief, Akram Khakreezwal, said Shafaq had been advised to stay in Mazar-e-Sharif with his escort and wait for orders from Kabul.

The move is a setback for Karzai, who is visiting the United States and will hold talks with President George W. Bush on the worsening Taleban insurgency and faltering efforts to disarm regional militias like that loyal to Dostum before landmark elections.

In April Dostum’s forces overran neighboring Faryab province, forcing its governor and a top military commander to flee.

In a separate development, authorities sent about 200 soldiers to drive out a local commander who overran a district headquarters in the central province of Ghor, the local police chief, Gen. Zaman, said. He said there had been clashes between followers of the commander, Abdul Satar, and government troops, but he had no details of any casualties.

A surge in violence around the country has raised concern about security for the poll, which Bush would like to be able to present as a foreign policy success story before his own bid for re-election in November. The first post-Taleban elections, already delayed from June until September, will be delayed for a second time, the electoral commission said yesterday.

“The election cannot happen in September,” spokeswoman Ghutai Khawrai said, citing a failure to meet a new law that the boundaries of electoral constituencies must be certified 120 days before polls can be held.

The crucial presidential and parliamentary elections were first scheduled for June but were delayed by the Afghan government until September because of logistical problems. The earliest they can now be held is October, according to the commission.

Under the newly-passed electoral law the government must give 120 days’ notice of electoral boundaries before lower house elections can be held, but a presidential decree nominating the boundaries was only signed on June 5.

“The short space of time between certifying the polling stations and the polling day should be 120 days according to electoral law and we have only three months if it takes place in September,” Khawrai said.

“Since we plan to hold parliamentary and presidential elections at the same time it (the delay) is for both,” she added.

The government is also desperately short of funding for the elections, which are being organized with assistance from the United Nations.

“We are short of funds... we have no money in hand for this purpose,” Khawrai said.

The UN revealed last week that despite substantial pledges from the international community for the $101 million required to hold the elections, no money had been received in Afghanistan. The electoral commission plans to discuss the poll date with the registered political parties and presidential candidates on Wednesday before presenting their idea to Karzai, Khawrai said.

“We have invited all presidential candidates and political parties to discuss the exact date of the election and then we will present the date to the president,” she added.

A spokesman for Karzai, who is in the United States after attending the G-8 summit and the funeral of former US President Ronald Reagan, said the government still planned to hold elections on time despite rising violence in areas previously considered safe.

“Elections must go on,” Khaleeq Ahmad said from the US on Friday.