Four Afghan poll officials arrested

KABUL - The Hamid Karzai Government in Afghanistan has ordered the arrest of four Afghan election commission officials on charges of abuse of office and corruption.

The government has been deeply critical of the panel’s handling of disputed parliamentary elections.

The chief of the Independent Election Commission, Abdullah Ahmadzai, confirmed the arrests of the head of the commission’s logistics department and three lower-level employees.

The New York Times quoted Ahmadzai, as saying that the attorney general had ordered the four taken from the commission’s offices for questioning in a 2009 case. Later, the police ordered their detention.

“We do not really know the intention behind this. I cannot call it anything other than pressure at this time. We have been trying to get clarity why they have been arrested,” Ahmadzai said.

Hafizullah Hafiz, the head of the complaints department in the office of Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, said all four were charged with abuse of official office and corruption in a purchasing related to the 2009 presidential election, not the parliamentary elections on September 18 this year. (ANI)