Afghanistan postpones national vote

KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai postponed Afghanistan's first post-Taliban national elections by three months yesterday, heeding UN warnings that neither the security nor the logistics were in place for a quicker vote.

The United Nations had said for months that the elections, slated for June, might have to be delayed because officials, security forces, and candidates were ill-prepared for the massive task of registering up to 10.5 million eligible Afghans and organizing the vote in time.

Putting off the vote until September also means Afghanistan can run both the presidential and the parliamentary elections simultaneously, Karzai said.

"We wanted to have both elections together," Karzai said, referring to election officials and the international community. "That's also the desire of the people."

The UN special representative to Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, welcomed the decision, saying it would allow more time for NATO to expand its peacekeeping. Hamid Agha, a Taliban spokesman, called the delay "a defeat" and contended that the elections would be rigged.