Afghan election body to release final result Wednesday

President Obama meets with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai at the NATO Summit in Lisbon November 20, 2010.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) will announce final results from a September 18 parliamentary election on Wednesday, an official said, after long delays while fraud complaints were investigated.

The credibility of the eventual result will weigh heavily when U.S. President Barack Obama reviews his Afghan war strategy next month amid rising violence and sagging public support, especially after a fraud-marred presidential election last year.

Consistent allegations of vote fraud in both polls has raised questions about the credibility of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government at a time when U.S. and NATO officials have been re-examining their long-term commitment in Afghanistan.

Later on Tuesday, Afghan television reported two election officials had been suspended by the attorney general's office for "making statements against the national interest."

The officials were identified as IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor and Ahmad Zia Rafat, a member of the Electoral Complaints Commission who is also spokesman for the U.N.-backed watchdog. The attorney general's office could not be reached for comment.

IEC spokeswoman Marzia Siddiqi Salim said earlier the commission had called a news conference for Wednesday to release the results. Preliminary results were announced on October 20.

A U.N.-backed election watchdog said on Sunday nearly one in 10 winning candidates had been disqualified for fraud.

Sunday's disqualifications by the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) cleared the way for the Aghan government's IEC to release the final results.

All 21 candidates disqualified by the ECC on Sunday had won a majority of votes in their districts. Seven of them were sitting lawmakers in the 249-seat wolesi jirga, or lower house of parliament, and one is a first cousin of Karzai.

The lack of a result so long after the vote was a worrying sign for Afghanistan's NATO partners, who wrapped up a major summit in Lisbon last week where an exit plan from the conflict for roughly 150,000 foreign troops was top of the agenda.

The NATO leaders endorsed Karzai's target of 2014 for Afghan forces to take complete security responsibility, although some U.S. and NATO officials cautioned that might spill into 2015.

Civilian and military casualties this year have been the highest since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, despite the presence of a record number of foreign troops.

PROTESTERS THREATEN VIOLENCE

Complaints about fraud and vote rigging have dogged the parliamentary vote, beginning even before Afghans went to the polls. Afghan officials however have hailed the vote a success.

Western observers have been more guarded in their response. Staffan De Mistura, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, has praised Afghans for staging the poll in the middle of a violent insurgency but also noted "considerable fraud" took place.

Several hundred protesters, angry about the ECC's decision, rallied in the northern and central provinces of Baghlan and Faryab on Monday, demanding the reinstatement of representatives who had been thrown out.

"We don't want this corrupt government and if our candidates are not back in the winning lists, we will pick up weapons and fight the government, and the government will be responsible," said angry protester Ahmad Nisar.

Karzai cautioned protesters against any violent response.

"If they have complaints and they are just, then they have to submit their complaints to the Supreme Court, but going for violence or armed conflict ... is a national treason," Karzai told a news conference at his palace.

Scores of candidates have alleged bribe-taking or fraud by election officials and called for a new poll in recent weeks.

Some have warned that a parliament that does not represent Afghanistan's various ethnic groups risked further instability.

There were more than 6,000 complaints lodged with ECC and the IEC has already thrown out almost a quarter of the 5.6 million votes cast as invalid. The IEC is being investigated by the attorney general's office over election fraud.

(Editing by Paul Tait)