Afghanistan's election commission has removed nine lawmakers from parliament after a long-running row over fraud-tainted elections last year, its chairman said.
The nine will be replaced with nine others that the country's Independent Election Commission said were the rightful winners in the country's elections last year.
The IEC said the replacement lawmakers initially won the seats according to preliminary results in last September's parliamentary elections, but were later stripped of their victories.
‘Nine people... from eight provinces are reinstated and nine people will have to leave their seats,’ said Fazil Ahmad Manawi, chairman of the IEC.
'The reasons for their removal were not enough... so the IEC decided to reinstate those nine persons.’
The Afghan parliament has been virtually paralysed since being sworn in last January because of the dispute over whether candidates should be kicked out over vote fraud, and if so how many.
There have been a string of angry demonstrations on the streets of Kabul by affected politicians and their supporters.
Although President Hamid Karzai tasked the IEC with resolving the row this month, commentators predict its ruling is likely to provoke fresh protests.
