A special Afghan court set up by President Hamid Karzai has disqualified about one quarter of the winners of last year's parliamentary election after an investigation into allegations of massive voter fraud.

The tribunal said Thursday a recount of valid votes from the September election led it to overturn results for 62 seats in the 249-member parliament. It said the holders of those seats must make way for newly-declared winners.

Mr. Karzai has had strained relations with the assembly, which held its first session in January after an election in which his critics made major gains. The Afghan president had asked lawmakers to delay parliament's inauguration to give his special tribunal more time to investigate the widespread election fraud complaints.

But many legislators objected to delaying their work and rejected the tribunal as an illegal ploy by Mr. Karzai to reshape the membership of parliament more to his liking.

Afghanistan's internationally-funded Independent Election Commission conducted its own investigation of thousands of fraud allegations in the months after the election, disqualifying about one-quarter of the votes and 24 candidates who appeared to have won. The commission announced its official results on December 1.

It is not clear who has the final authority to determine the winners of the September vote. The Karzai tribunal plans to reconvene on Saturday, raising the possibility that it will overturn more parliamentary results.

Tribunal chief Sidiqullah Haqiq said any candidates who won their seats through fraud “must be prosecuted.” Armed soldiers stood behind the judges as the revised results were announced in the Kabul courtroom, with the newly-declared winners and their supporters cheering and applauding.

In one district, the tribunal said a candidate previously recorded as not getting any votes actually collected about 20,000. In another district, an earlier winner was stripped of 5,000 votes, while a losing candidate received an additional 12,000 ballots, reversing the result.