KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission on Wednesday confirmed that the country’s second democratic election would be held on Aug. 20, rejecting President Hamid Karzai’s call for the vote to be moved up by at least four months.
The decision, however, failed to resolve the question of Karzai’s status during the period between May 22, when his five-year term ends under the constitution, and the election.
The issue will be the subject of intense bargaining between Karzai and his political opponents, who are likely to demand that he be replaced by an interim president or guarantee that he won’t use his office to bolster his re-election campaign.
Analysts said that Karzai could try to extend his term by two months by asking the Afghan parliament to approve a state of emergency, but doing so could worsen the political crisis.
The wrangling comes amid a worsening Taliban insurgency, which last year reached its bloodiest level since the 2001 U.S. intervention that drove the puritanical Islamist group from power.
A suicide bomber killed himself Wednesday when he detonated a car full of explosives on the perimeter of the main U.S. military base at Bagram, north of Kabul. A base spokesman said the blast injured three U.S. civilian contractors.
The election commission’s decision to retain Aug. 20 as the date for the presidential contest came four days after Karzai directed the panel to observe provisions in the Afghan Constitution requiring that the vote be held 60 to 30 days before his term expires on May 22.
Commission chairman Azizullah Lodin said it was “impossible” to hold the vote that early because time was needed to allow U.S.-led troops and Afghan security forces to prepare.
About 17,000 additional American troops are scheduled to begin arriving this spring to bolster the U.S.-led international force of more than 70,000 soldiers now in the country.
