Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Wednesday rejected President Hamid Karzai’s order of holding the presidential polls in April, months earlier than the date set by the commission.
The independent election authority has announced in January the election would be postponed to Aug. 20 because of logistical and security worries. But Karzai, who has declared his intention to run for a second term, suddenly issued a decree last week, ordering the commission to move the election forward to adhere to the Afghan constitution.
The President’s five-year office term will end on May …

OTTAWA — Michael Ignatieff, a former journalist, documentary producer and academic, became the effective leader of the Liberal Party of Canada on Tuesday.
At a news conference, Mr. Ignatieff’s only remaining rival for the position, Bob Rae, the former Ontario premier, abandoned the party’s leadership race and backed the candidacy of Mr. Ignatieff, who was once his college roommate.
Mr. Ignatieff must go through several formal approvals, the first of which will be in his party caucus on Wednesday. But when those rituals are complete, Mr. Ignatieff will formally head a coalition …

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Quebec’s ruling Liberals strengthened their grip on power in a provincial election on Monday, winning a parliamentary majority and defeating separatists who want independence for the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province.
Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals, who went into the vote with only 48 of the 125 seats in Quebec’s legislature, won 66 seats. Opinion polls had forecast a Liberal victory.
Charest, who won a majority in 2003 and then barely hung onto power in a March 2007 vote, called the election last month on the grounds that he needed a …

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delayed an opposition bid to topple his Conservative Party government by a week, seeking to thwart their effort to make his administration the shortest-lived in Canada’s history.
The opposition Liberal Party indicated earlier yesterday it may introduce a motion as early as Dec. 1 to bring down Harper and form an “alternative” government with the support of other opposition parties.

TORONTO (AP) — A former human rights professor at Harvard University on Thursday entered the leadership race for Canada’s once-dominant Liberal Party, which lost badly at the polls during national elections last month.
Michael Ignatieff left a prestigious post in 2005 as director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard to enter Canadian politics, only to lose the leadership position the next year to current Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who will step down following last month’s drubbing.

Francis McKenna is a Canadian businessman and former politician and diplomat.

OTTAWA — The fire was never really in Frank McKenna’s belly to run for the Liberal Party’s top job and he wasn’t ready to make the time commitment.
However, he believed he owed it to the hundreds of Liberals who had beseeched him to at least politely consider the idea.

John James Charest is a Canadian lawyer, politician and current Premier of Quebec.

QUEBEC – Quebec Premier Jean Charest cranked up speculation on a possible December election a notch on Monday by withdrawing from a trade mission to China.
A senior Liberal official confirmed Monday that Charest will not take part in the mission with other Canadian premiers. He was set to leave Friday.
The source said the premier “is seriously considering” calling an election but stressed that no decision has yet been made.

Stéphane Maurice Dion PC MP is the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons.