By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's attorney general and the country's top electoral body clashed on Monday over last year's fraud-marred parliamentary election in another sign of growing political paralysis.
Afghanistan's lawmakers have spent three weeks squabbling over the selection of a parliamentary speaker, an unsavoury image for Western backers who paid for the ${esc.dollar}140 million election held on Sept. 18 and whose troops are fighting a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
Widespread accusations of vote fraud from all sides marred the poll, just as it did in a presidential vote in 2009 won by incumbent Hamid Karzai, with arguments and accusations delaying the inauguration of the new lower house until Jan. 26.
On Monday, Afghanistan's attorney general ordered the detention of top election officials in a showdown over access to suspect ballot boxes, but the Independent Election Commission (IEC) appeared to stare down the threat.
The face-off ended without arrests, despite the presence of police, with both the Attorney General's Office and the Independent Election Commission later saying election officials had agreed to cooperate with a request that ballot boxes be handed over to a special election court convened by Karzai.
The order was a clear sign of the judiciary's determination to push ahead with efforts to probe and possibly overturn at least some results from the 2010 election.
Karzai's critics say the special tribunal, which comes under the Supreme Court and was set up to probe election fraud, is designed more to further his political aims than serve justice.
The tribunal claims the power to unseat any lawmaker found guilty of vote-rigging.
Karzai is thought to be unhappy with the new parliament's make-up, which although not necessarily united, may yet yield a more vocal and coherent opposition bloc to challenge him unlike previous assemblies seen more as a rubber stamp.
Afghanistan's political system leaves little room for political parties to operate, so changing only a few results could have a significant impact in the 249-seat lower house.
The body's inauguration last month was welcomed by Western diplomats as a "big day" for Afghanistan, even though the United Nations has acknowledged there had been "considerable fraud" committed during the vote.
But the parliament since has been marked by its inability to achieve anything of note while arguments over fraud continue.
On Monday, the IEC condemned the Attorney General's Office for heavy-handed tactics in a raid to get ballot boxes from 12 provinces that have been sought by Karzai's special tribunal.
"The Commission had officially assured the Supreme Court and the Attorney General's Office of its cooperation, but their delegation of several cars and armed policemen entered the IEC compound without previous notification," the IEC said.
"The Election Commission strongly condemns this show of force against it," it said in a statement.
(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Paul Tait) (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))
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