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KABUL: Nine Afghan lawmakers kicked out of the country's lower house as part of efforts to end a long-running vote-rigging row were refused access to parliament on Saturday.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) last month ordered that the nine MPs be replaced, after almost a year of street protests and controversy over last September's fraud-tainted parliamentary polls.
While nine was far lower than other figures previously floated, a special tribunal said in June it should be 62, a quarter of all lawmakers, the ruling still prompted fury among many politicians.
The row has raised questions about transparency in Afghan politics and is prolonging uncertainty as foreign combat forces start withdrawals ahead of a 2014 deadline for all of them to leave.
Mohammad Rafiq Shaheer, a lawmaker from the western province of Herat who is among the nine disqualified, told AFP by telephone on Saturday: “We are outside the Parliament, the security officials are not allowing us to enter the parliament, and around 120 MPs... have also stood with us to support us.”
Saturday's session opened with “new” MPs replacing those thrown out by the IEC, a parliament official said.
Among the replacement lawmakers was Ahmad Khan, a powerful warlord from northern Samangan province, who confirmed to AFP that he had taken his seat.
Ahmad Behzad, the second deputy speaker of the house and a member of the main group opposing President Hamid Karzai, condemned what he called an act of “treachery against the parliament.”
”President Karzai brought military coup to the parliament... today, around 100 MPs from the Law support coalition were not allowed to enter the Parliament by the security forces,” he said.
“The Afghan army and the police have occupied the compound of the parliament, and due to military pressure by president Karzai, the oath taking ceremony of the nine new MPs was held.”
Khalid Pashtoon, first deputy speaker of the Lower house said the security forces “were deployed not to allow those former MPs” into the building but “strongly rejected” claims that other members of the Law support coalition were blocked from entering Parliament.
Pashtoon said around 50 of the Wolesi Jirga's 249 members attended Saturday's session, during which eight of the nine replacement MPs were sworn in.
The IEC was assigned by President Hamid Karzai to make the final ruling in the nearly year-long row over election disputes.
But the issue is highly controversial in Afghanistan and has prompted a string of angry protests on the streets of Kabul by supporters of rival politicians in recent months.
