IEC SAYS "YES WE CAN" FOR AUGUST 20 ELECTION DATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L KABUL 000435

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2019
TAGS: KDEM PREL PGOV AF
SUBJECT: IEC SAYS "YES WE CAN" FOR AUGUST 20 ELECTION DATE

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Valerie Fowler, Reasons 1.5 (
b) and (d)


1. (C) The morning after President Karzai's ambiguous
decree on the date of the presidential election (text
septel),the leadership of the Independent Election
Commission (IEC) remained firmly committed to August 20, 2009
for voting day. Senior IEC Commissioner Dr. Azizullah Ludin
told PolCouns on March 1 he is focused on the "legitimacy" of
the electoral process, a clear reference to the IEC's
consistent analysis that constitutional provisions calling
for a universal franchise outweigh other, contradictory
articles. Ludin will convoke his six fellow Commissioners to
study the officially-transmitted copy of the decree and
formulate a response. Ludin said he welcomed the USG
statement in response to Karzai's decree.


2. (C) Dr. Daoud Ali Najafi, the IEC's Chief Technical
Officer and the source of the recommendations the
Commissioners will consider, likewise pledged the IEC will
stick by the rationale of universal franchise, logistics, and
security that led it on January 29 to announce an August 20
date. Najafi said the IEC will wait a few days to see the
reaction of political leaders and then calibrate its first
public statement on the February 28 presidential decree --
perhaps at its next regularly-scheduled Thursday press
conference.


3. (C) Zekria Barakzai, Najafi's deputy and the electoral
leadership's number-two Pashtun, repeated earlier assurances
that the IEC will "study" the decree and then announce that
the election date remains August 20. He suggested the study
might take as long as ten days, a slightly longer time frame
than Najafi's estimate. He appreciated the USG statement.
"With your support," Barakzai said, "we will say 'yes we can'
to an August 20 election date."
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