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 Afghanistanportal |
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Afghanistan in January 1977. [1] The Constitutional Assembly was called to produce a new constitution four years after the coup that saw Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrow his cousin, King Mohammed Zahir Shah. The Assembly was part-elected and part-appointed.
In 1973 Daoud Khan deposed his brother-in-law, Zahir Shah in a bloodless coup. The parliament democratically elected in 1969 was dissolved. Daoud went on to turn the country into a presidential republic with the National Revolutionary Party, founded in 1975, as the sole legal party.
A 41-member Constitutional Committee was formed to draft a new constitution, which would be scrutinised and approved by an elected Assembly. [2]
The constitution drawn up provided for a unicameral parliament named the National Council (Melli Jirga). Only the National Revolutionary Party would be able to nominate candidates for parliamentary elections. The president was to be elected for a six-year term by two-thirds vote in a Loya Jirga consisting of the parliament, National Revolutionary Party central council members, government ministers, Supreme Court judges, members of the Armed forces, 30 presidential nominees and 5–8 representatives from each province. [3]
The 219 elected members were elected in a traditional manner; public meetings were held in each district, with voting taking the form of shows of hands or shouts until one candidate became the clear favourite. [1]
The 219 elected members including four women; Kubra Noorzai (the first female minister in 1965), Aziza Amani, Najiba and Najiba Siir. [2] Together with the eight appointed female members, [2] women made up 15% of the Assembly. [4]
The Assembly convened in February and approved the new constitution, as well as unanimously electing Daoud as president. [2] It was then dissolved. Daoud was overthrown in the Saur Revolution the following year and no elections were held under the new constitution. [3]
Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last King of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century.
Mohammad Daoud Khan was an Afghan military officer and politician who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup d'état which overthrew the monarchy, served as the first president of Afghanistan from 1973 until he himself was deposed in a coup and killed in the Saur Revolution.
The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was a Marxist–Leninist political party in Afghanistan established on 1 January 1965. Four members of the party won seats in the 1965 Afghan parliamentary election, reduced to two seats in 1969, albeit both before the party was fully legal. For most of its existence, the party was split between the hardline Khalq and moderate Parcham factions, each of which claimed to represent the "true" PDPA.
The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan was the supreme law of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which lasted from 2004 to 2021. It served as the legal framework between the Afghan government and the Afghan citizens. Although Afghanistan was made a state in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, the earliest Afghan constitutional movement began during the reign of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1890s followed by the drafting in 1922 of a constitution. The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan transformed Afghanistan into a modern democracy.
A 502-delegate loya jirga convened in Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 14, 2003, to consider the proposed Afghan Constitution. Originally planned to last ten days, the assembly did not endorse the charter until January 4, 2004. As has been generally the case with these assemblies, the endorsement came by way of consensus rather than a vote. Afghanistan's last constitution was drafted for the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in November 1987.
A jirga is an assembly of leaders that makes decisions by consensus according to Pashtunwali, the Pashtun social code. It is conducted in order to settle disputes among the Pashtuns, but also by members of other ethnic groups who are influenced by them in present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Though Afghanistan has had democratic elections throughout the 20th century, the electoral institutions have varied as changes in the political regime have disrupted political continuity. Elections were last held under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which was deposed by the Taliban in August 2021. The Taliban dissolved the Elections Commission in December 2021. In May 2022, when asked if the Taliban would hold elections, First Deputy Leader Sirajuddin Haqqani said the question was "premature". All political parties have been banned since August 2023.
The Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA), also known as the Afghan Transitional Authority, was the temporary transitional government in Afghanistan established by the loya jirga in June 2002. The Transitional Authority succeeded the original Islamic State of Afghanistan and preceded the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021).
The House of Elders or Mesherano Jirga, was the upper house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the lower House of the People. It was effectively dissolved when the Taliban seized power on 15 August 2021. The Taliban did not include the House of Elders and several other agencies of the former government in its first national budget in May 2022. Government spokesman Innamullah Samangani said that due to the financial crisis, only active agencies were included in the budget, and the excluded ones had been dissolved, but noted they could be brought back "if needed."
The Barakzai dynasty, also known as the Muhammadzai dynasty, ruled what is now Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978, when the monarchy ended de jure under Musahiban Mohammad Zahir Shah and de facto under his cousin Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan. The Barakzai dynasty was established by Dost Mohammad Khan after the Durrani dynasty of Ahmad Shah Durrani was removed from power. As the Pahlavi era in Iran, the Muhammadzai era was known for its progressivist modernity, practice of Sufism, peaceful security and neutrality, in which Afghanistan was referred to as the "Switzerland of Asia".
The Revolutionary Council of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) ruled the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1978 until its collapse in 1992. The council was the supreme state power under the communist regime and was a carbon copy of the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union. The point with the council was to convene on a semiannual basis to approve decisions made by the presidium.
Shahla Ata was an Afghan politician, congresswoman and one of two female candidates during Afghanistan's 2009 Presidential election. She told DiManno she and her family lived for 18 years in the United States. The Contender Biography published by Pajhwok Afghan News has her living in the United States from 1990 to 1994, and living in Pakistan for the remainder of the period 1986 to 2001, where she administered relief to other Afghan expatriates.
The Republic of Afghanistan was the first republic in Afghanistan. It is often called the Daoud Republic, as it was established in July 1973 after General Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan of the Barakzai dynasty alongside senior Barakzai Princes deposed his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, in a coup d'état. The occasion for the coup was the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan which took power from most members of the royal family in favour of centralization under Zahir Shah and his offspring under the tenet of democracy. Daoud Khan was known for his autocracy and attempts to modernize the country with help from both the Soviet Union and the United States, among others.
An emergency loya jirga was held in Kabul, Afghanistan between 11 and 19 June 2002 to elect a transitional administration. The loya jirga was called for by the Bonn Agreement and Bush administration. The agreement was drawn up in December 2001 in Germany. Conducted under United Nations auspices, the talks at Bonn sought a solution to the problem of government in Afghanistan after the US ousted the Taliban government.
The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan was the supreme law of the Kingdom of Afghanistan from 1964 to 1973. It was annulled following a coup d'état, though parts of the constitution were restored by future governments from 2002 to 2004 and from 2021 to 2022. It was drafted by a committee of foreign-educated Afghans, including Sardar Abdul Hakim Ziai and Sardar Abdul Rahim Ziai, appointed for the task by the Afghan King, Mohammad Zahir Shah. The primary goals of the Constitution were to prepare the government and the people for gradual movement toward democracy and socioeconomic modernization. It also acknowledged freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. A Loya jirga had debated, modified and approved its innovations, which included a bill of rights for all Afghans, explicitly including women. After public review, the constitution was put into effect in October 1964.
The National Revolutionary Party, or National Revolution Party, was a political party in the Republic of Afghanistan. The party was founded in 1975 by President Mohammed Daoud Khan, who had seized control of Afghanistan from his first cousin, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, in the mostly bloodless 1973 coup d'état.
The 1973 Afghan coup d'état, also called by Afghans as the Coup of 26 Saratan and self-proclaimed as the Revolution of 26 Saratan 1352, was led by Army General and prince Mohammad Daoud Khan against his cousin, King Mohammad Zahir Shah, on 17 July 1973, which resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan under a one-party system led by Daoud Khan.
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Afghanistan in 1964. The Assembly produced the 1964 constitution, which introduced women's suffrage.
Ghulam Hassan Gran is an Afghan government official, politician and lawyer serving as the Director of Political, Cultural and Public Affairs of the President Office of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan since July, 2020 until August 2021 then after the fall of the Republic regime by the Taliban he left his job.
Democracy in Afghanistan has been severely limited and characterized by short, unstable historical periods since the formation of the contemporary state of Afghanistan in the 20th century. Following the rise of power of Ghazi Amanullah Khan in 1919, the first elements of a democratic government in the country began to emerge, with the formation of a constitution and increased civil liberties. Amanullah's political reforms resulted in his overthrow and for much of the rest of the 20th century, until 1964, there was limited democratization in the country. With the establishment of a bicameral national legislature in 1964 by King Zahir Shah, political parties began to form; however, none of these reforms were lasting after Zahir Shah's removal from power in 1973 and the formation of an autocratic Afghanistan republic.
