Afghan judge leaves UN election complaints panel

A senior Afghan official has resigned from the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), over what he calls foreign interference after the five-member council changed its fraud-tallying rules for the second time in less than a week.

Mustafa Barikzai, a Supreme Court judge, was one of two Afghan members of the body, which was established to probe voting irregularities.

He said the commission has been influenced by its UN appointed foreign members.

Accusing the foreign members of the council of disrespecting the Afghan Constitution, Barikzai said he had been excluded from the body's decision-making for "defending Afghan and Islamic values."

He claimed that the three foreigners on the panel — one Canadian, one Dutch and one American — make decisions on their own.

The news comes as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has expressed its full backing of Kai Eide, the UN special representative to Afghanistan, after Eide's former deputy accused him of hiding evidence of fraud in the August 20 presidential elections.