Afghan parliament losers protest against watchdog

They warned of nationwide demonstrations after a poll watchdog rejected an order to put them into the legislature.Afghanistans president and parliament have been locked in a political crisis over results of a fraud-marred parliamentary election last September, which has kept the 249-member assembly hardly functioning and hindered formation of a full cabinet.Sunday, Afghanistans Independent Election Commission (IEC) unseated nine of 62 parliamentarians a special poll tribunal appointed by President Hamid Karzai had ordered removed on grounds of alleged election irregularities.The IEC, which ran the foreign-funded election last year, had initially objected to the poll courts June ruling as unconstitutional, but later softened its stance and assented to the replacement of nine legislators.Those protesting Tuesday in front of the U.N. mission, which distributed the foreign election funding, were supporters of the remaining 53 the IEC refused to send to parliament in spite of the special poll courts decision.Nobody in Afghanistan cares about the law, Abdul Jabar Shulgarai, who was a losing candidate from the central Ghazni province. It is the foreign embassies which make the decision and IEC announces it.Supporters waved placards and chanted slogans calling the IEC head Fazl Ahmad Manawi a slave of foreign nations and a traitor. The losing candidates warned of further demonstrations in the provinces and Kabul.