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Afghan president Hamid Karzai is rejecting calls to dismiss the head of the country’s election commission — a man appointed by Karzai himself. The World’s Jason Margolis has more.

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JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World.  October isn’t quite finished, but this month is already the deadliest for US forces since the war against the Taliban began eight years ago.  Fifty-five soldiers have died in Afghanistan this month.  Not coincidentally, the war has become increasingly controversial.  Today, we learned that an American diplomat has resigned in protest over the war.  We’ll have more on that in a moment.  But first, we turn to another headache for US policymakers.  That’s Afghanistan’s uncertain presidential politics.  President Hamid Karzai’s challenger is demanding the removal of the head of Afghanistan’s election commission.  But, as The World’s Jason Margolis reports, Karzai is standing by his man.

JASON MARGOLIS: The man who oversees elections in Afghanistan is named Azizullah Ludin. That’s not exactly a household name, but Ludin could decide the upcoming election. Or rather, Ludin’s job status could decide if there is an election.  That’s because presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah has indicated that he may boycott the next round of elections if Karzai doesn’t make some changes to Afghanistan’s election commission.

BRIAN KATULIS: There’s an interesting game of chicken that has actually developed between Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah.

MARGOLIS: Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.  He says President Karzai has the power to appoint all the members of the election commission.

KATULIS: And the parliament in Afghanistan had tried to acquire some sort of voice in this earlier this year. And Karzai essentially rejected it. So this led to some questions among some observers and among some in Afghanistan of the independence of this independent election commission.

MARGOLIS: Those questions multiplied this past weekend when Ludin told the New York Times, quote, “We will have another election, and we’ll have the same result. Karzai is going to win.”  Analyst Brian Katulis says that’s an odd thing to say for election officials anywhere.

KATULIS: They shouldn’t be offering their prognosis or their predictions of what will happen.

CANDACE RONDEAUX: I mean this is ridiculous.

MARGOLIS: Candace Rondeaux is with the International Crisis Group in Kabul.

RONDEAUX: There’s not a Western country in the world where you would have the head, the chief electoral advisor, calling an election for one candidate or the other.  I mean, this completely calls into question the impartiality of this body.

MARGOLIS:  But Karzai is dismissing these criticisms. In an interview today with the BBC’s Pashto Service, Karzai said he’s standing by not only his election chief, Azizullah Ludin, but also three cabinet members Abdullah also wants ousted.

HAMID KARZAI: [speaking Pashto] Dr. Abdullah wants me to remove some officials, but they have done nothing wrong. They have been performing their duties and what the law requires them to do. We cannot make any more changes just one week before the election, otherwise the election and Afghanistan will suffer.”

MARGOLIS: Karzai also urged Abdullah to take part in the next election because, he said that’s what’s best for Afghanistan.

KARZAI: [speaking Pashto] I want us to be able to shake the hands of the winner and wish the next government of Afghanistan the best.

MARGOLIS: But Karzai’s critics warn that it’s easy to stack the deck and steal an election when your people are in charge. Many of the elections officials who oversaw the vote in August were presumed to be Karzai loyalists. And many of them are still in place.  For The World, I’m Jason Margolis.

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