Sacramento BeeJON GAMBRELL
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A special Afghan tribunal began throwing out election results Thursday from last year's parliamentary poll, alleging massive fraud and putting in question who will control the legislative body that acts as one of the few checks on President Hamid Karzai.
The Karzai-appointed tribunal, led by Special Court Judge Sidiqullah Haqiq, said it had adjusted results from 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. In early tallies, the tribunal announced 13 new members of the 249-seat parliament Thursday morning.
The packed courtroom in Kabul gasped at times as the five-judge panel detailed some of the fraud it said it had uncovered from the September 2010 election - including one race in Kunduz province in which the tribunal said it counted 20,000 votes for someone marked as receiving zero.
Election officials discarded 1.3 million ballots from the poll - nearly a quarter of the total - for fraud and disqualified 19 winning candidates for cheating.
International advisers consider the re-counts illegal, but the tribunal insists that it has the power to overturn results and even order entire provinces to revote.
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