Afghanistan to postpone election

AFGHANISTAN will postpone its presidential election until August 20, some four months later than the Constitution specifies, to give incoming US forces more time to stabilise the country’s most violent regions, the national election commission said yesterday.

Opposition lawmakers decried the delay and said they won’t recognise Hamid Karzai as president after May 22 — his last day in office, according to the Constitution. Parliament is set to debate the issue Saturday in a potentially contentious session that could signal whether a constitutional crisis looms.

“If Karzai is in office after May 22, that will be illegal,” said Sayyid Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki, spokesman for the National Front, a group of opposition lawmakers. “Nobody is allowed to change the constitution.”

The constitution says the election should be held 30 to 60 days before May 22. But Azizullah Lodin, head of the Independent Election Commission, said the security situation is not good enough for a vote to occur so soon.

The August date is meant to be a compromise between the president’s office — which wanted the vote delayed until autumn — and parliament, which has said elections must occur in the spring, Lodin said.

Karzai has said he plans to run for a second five-year term. Several other Afghan politicians have said they will also run.

Illinois governor ousted in US vote

ROD BLAGOJEVICH is no longer Illinois’ governor.

Blagojevich was ousted from office yesterday by the Illinois Senate.

His removal capped a state crisis that began with his December 9 arrest on corruption charges — including that he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

The 52-year-old Democrat gave a passionate closing statement claiming he did nothing wrong. It didn’t sway senators, who voted 59-0 to remove him for abuse of power.

Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn immediately becomes governor.

Blagojevich had defiantly resisted intense pressure to quit.

The Senate impeachment trial lasted four days. Blagojevich had blasted the proceedings and unfair and refused to participate until the final day.

Blagojevich, 52, had boycotted the first three days of the impeachment trial, calling the proceedings a kangaroo court.

But yesterday, he went before the Senate to beg for his job, delivering a 47-minute plea that was, by turns, defiant, humble and sentimental.

He argued, again, that he did nothing wrong, and warned his impeachment would set a “dangerous and chilling precedent”.