U.N.'s new envoy hails Karzai on poll watchdog change

A Taliban fighter poses with weapons in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, October 30, 2009.

KABUL (Reuters) - The new United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan praised President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday for revoking a decree that barred foreign observers from a U.N.-backed electoral watchdog.

Karzai's decision last month to remove three foreign members from the five-member Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) drew stern criticism from his Western allies and the main opposition bloc at home.

Tasked with reviewing voting fraud, the ECC, which had its three foreign members appointed by the United Nations, last year nullified a third of Karzai's votes in the presidential poll as fraudulent.

Karzai's move to bar foreign observers from the ECC was seen by many as a major blow for holding a transparent and free parliamentary election slated for September.

But Karzai during his first meeting with the new special envoy for the United Nations, Staffan De Mistura, on Tuesday said the organization can choose two foreigners to sit on the panel.

"I had today a very constructive and very useful meeting with his excellency the President Karzai," Mistura told Reuters by phone.

"He informed me that he has decided that the two members of that committee (ECC) will be international members and that the authority of the U.N. ... will be asked to select them, and I acknowledge that with satisfaction," he said.

Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omer, said both Mistura and the president also discussed ways of holding a transparent and free parliamentary poll, seen as a turning point in Afghanistan where the West is trying to defeat the resurgent Taliban.

Mistura, an Italian-Swedish diplomat, has served in Iraq as the U.N. envoy in the past.

The U.N. mission in Kabul suffered last year from a public quarrel between its outgoing head, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, and his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, who accused Eide of trying to cover up massive fraud in the vote that ultimately saw President Hamid Karzai re-elected.

Eide denied trying to cover up fraud and Galbraith was fired.

In the end, a five-member watchdog that included three members appointed by Eide threw out nearly a third of votes cast for Karzai, forcing a second-round run-off which was canceled when Karzai's rival withdrew.

Donor countries, which Afghanistan relies on strongly, say they would like to see reforms to the election process before they agree to pay for the vote to be held.

The U.N. could also see its role in Afghanistan slip further as Washington sends hundreds of additional civilians to manage its own aid projects under President Barack Obama's escalation strategy announced last year.

The mostly-American NATO-led military force in Afghanistan, now numbering 120,000 and expanding to nearly 150,000 this year, named a new civilian chief last month to coordinate civilian efforts among countries with troops on the ground.

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)