The Afghan parliamentary election, 2010 to elect members of the House of the People (Wolesi Jirga) took place on 18 September 2010.[1][2] The Afghan Independent Election Commission - established in accordance with the article 156 of the Constitution of Afghanistan for the purpose of organizing and supervising all elections in the country - postponed the poll from its original date of 22 May[3][4][5][6][7] to September 18.
The House of Representatives of the People or Majles-e-Namayendagan Afghanistan in Persian and Wolesi Jirga in Pashtu and Turkic, is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the upper House of Elders.
The Constitution of Afghanistan is the supreme law of the state of Afghanistan, which serves 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 constitution was written during the reign of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1890s followed by the 1923 version. The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan transformed Afghanistan into a modern democracy.
The results were delayed on several occasions, but were finalized on October 31. The Taliban issued a direct threat to all those involved in the House of the People elections.
The Taliban or Taleban, who refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), are a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization in Afghanistan currently waging war within that country. Since 2016, the Taliban's leader is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. The leadership is based in Quetta, Pakistan.
Campaign
The campaign period kicked off on June 23 and ran until September 16. On June 23, 2010, the full list of candidates was announced; 2,577 candidates filed to run, 405 of them women.[8]
On July 7, 2010, the Electoral Complaint Commission[9] announced that it had disqualified 36 candidates because of ties to illegal private militias. However, according to critics "the net caught a few small fish while the sharks swam around it".[10][11]Sima Samar, who heads the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said she was concerned that there were alleged war criminals on the candidate lists.[12]
Sima Samar, is a well known woman’s and human rights advocate, activist and a social worker within national and international forums, who served as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2003. She is currently the Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and, from 2005 to 2009, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. In 2011, she was part of the newly founded Truth and Justice party.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is the national human rights institution of Afghanistan, dedicated to the promotion, protection and monitoring of human rights and the investigation of human rights abuses.
Security
"We urge people not to participate in the election. Everything and everyone affiliated with the election is our target -- candidates, security forces, campaigners, election workers, voters are all our targets," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.[13]
Zabiullah Mujahid is the name or alias of one of two official spokesmen for the Taliban, the other being Qari Yousef Ahmadi. Mujahid comments mainly on the Taliban's activities in eastern, northern, and central Afghanistan, while Ahmadi focuses on the western and southern regions. He regularly communicates with Afghan journalists and speaks on behalf of the Taliban via cellphone calls, text messages, emails, Twitter, and postings on jihadi websites.
Three candidates were killed during the campaign period while there have been several attempts on the lives of others, some of which have resulted in the deaths of campaign workers.
In a tally kept by the Free Election Foundation of Afghanistan,[14] eleven campaign workers have been killed since late June.[15]
Polling centres
On August 18, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission[16] announced it would open 5,897 polling centers for the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections. This is 938 fewer than the original plan to have 6,835 centers opened.[17]
The decision on whether to open or close polling centers is a matter of debate[18] but the IEC says decisions on the polling centers was made in conjunction with the country’s security agencies and on September 5 said it was too late to open more; a view supported by the United Nations and Democracy International.[19][20]
On September 8, the IEC said a further 81 polling centers would remain shut in eastern Nangarhar province. This brought to 1,019 centers closed, which is almost 15 per cent of the preliminary list of 6835.[21]
Voting system
The voting system used for House of the People elections is single non-transferable vote. The system allows for candidates with as little as less than one percent of the first-choice vote to be elected, something that happened with a number of candidates in the 2005 election.[22] There has been calls to review the use of SNTV as it impedes the development of political parties and prevents fair and accurate representation of Afghanistan’s diverse population.[23]
Candidates
There were 2,584 candidates on the ballots for the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections, across 34 provinces and a country-wide electorate for the nomadic Kuchi tribe.[24]
Some 406 candidates were women, who are allocated at least 68 seats.[25]
Notable incumbent candidates include: Ramazan Bashar Dost, who came third in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election; Younus Qanooni, runner-up to President Hamid Karzai in the 2004 presidential election and the inaugural Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga; Shukria Barakzai, a vocal supporter of women’s rights; and Mullah Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former jihadist who earned his name from his skill in shooting rocket-propelled grenades during the Soviet occupation. All three of them are standing again for one of the 33 seats assigned to Kabul province.
Other candidates for Kabul include: comedian Zamir Kabuli, who is famous for ridiculing politicians; Farida Tarana, a 29-year-old former female contestant on Afghan Star, the local equivalent of American Idol.[26]
Controversy
Reflecting on the disputed previous presidential election, in December 2009 representatives of donor states expressed worries and even suggested that voting should be postponed. Since the violence and the accusations of fraud that accompanied the 2009 election,[27] another round of voting was expected to do more harm than good. The planned election might lead to a new campaign of violence by the Taliban to intimidate voters. The United Nations, the US and election observation missions, including one representing the European Union, had asked the Afghan government to refrain from further elections until it had written a new election law and created a list of registered voters.[28]
United States congressmen visiting Kabul that month also urged President Karzai to delay until electoral reforms were in place. Otherwise, Afghanistan could risk American financial support. Karzai insisted that the elections had to be held in May, despite concerns about their credibility.[29][30]
On January 24, the election authorities in Afghanistan decided to postpone the elections until September 18, due to "security concerns, logistical problems, and insufficient funds".[31] Using a loophole in the Constitution, the Karzai administration unilaterally rewrote the election law, and Karzai put it into effect by a decree on February 13, 2010. Under this new version, the five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC),[9] would be chosen by the president after consultation with the parliamentary leadership. Previously, three of the seats were held by foreigners appointed by the United Nations and the other two members were Afghans.[32][33] On March 31, 2010, the Lower House of the Afghan parliament rejected this change.[34]
In a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) on May 17, 2010, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah warned that another rigged election would be catastrophic, even more than the discredited presidential election in August 2009 from which he dropped out.[35][36]
On August 13, 2010, Staffan de Mistura, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon's special representative for Afghanistan, called upon the Afghan security forces to show heightened vigilance, referring to widespread intimidation of female candidates, the killing of three candidates and other violence directed against candidates.[37][38] The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) stated that observers were based in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan to observe the campaigns at the provincial level, and volunteer observers in many districts as well.[39]
Starting June 2010, FEFA published monitoring reports into the election campaign,[40][41][42] in which it cataloged examples of violence against candidates or misuse of government resources. FEFA called on the Afghan government and Afghan and international security forces to take action against individuals perpetrating electoral violations and act decisively to protect voters and candidates and voters ahead of the parliamentary elections. In the report about the launch of the 2010 election campaigns, the FEFA detailed illegal actions of candidates, increasing attacks against candidates and campaign workers, and widespread intimidation of women. Warlords, the Taliban and rival candidates were blamed for the intimidation and already at least eight people had been assassinated in relation to the upcoming elections, including three candidates. According to some candidates the security situation was worse than with the 2009 elections, despite the arrival of the reinforcement of 30,000 American troops. Nader Nadery, Commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and director of FEFA, said that there was more intimidation, more attacks on female candidates and other candidates. "Areas in the south are becoming more and more insecure and areas in the north are becoming more and more intimidating for the weaker candidates." According to Mirwais Yasini, former deputy speaker of the Lower House and a candidate in Nangahar Province, in several districts it was impossible to campaign.[43]
There were also reports of thousands of fake voter registration cards in circulation that threatened the credibility of elections.[44]
Following the 2010 Qur'an-burning controversy, the UN's top diplomat in the country said the ensuing protests could force the delay of parliamentary elections.[45]
Fraud prevention
The Independent Election Commission endeavored to prevent the massive fraud that marred 2009's presidential elections, in which one million ballots for President Hamid Karzai were ruled invalid.[46]
The IEC sacked 6,000 election workers and tightened the security measures surrounding ballot boxes by introducing a computerized tracking system.[47]
However, it was expected that fraud would still occur and would be hard to spot, according to election observers Democracy International.[48]
Election
On election day, at least fourteen people were killed[49] amid UN and US warnings that security and fraud were major concerns at the election. The Taliban also fired rockets in several cities including Kabul and set off bombs at a polling station and by the governor of Kandahar's convoy.[50]
A Taliban website said that upwards of a hundred attacks had been carried out, though these claims were not confirmed; election authorities, however, said that the elections as a whole had been safe. The organization that monitored the elections, the Free and Fair Elections Foundation, said that "[t]hough there were numerous attacks, none were severe enough to disrupt voting on a wide scale."[51]
Fraud was also a concern, as some people were discovered trying to cast over a thousand illegitimate votes on behalf of candidates.[51] Some officials were accused of taking bribes;[49] and permanent ink was used to mark the fingers of those who had voted so as to identify and prevent multiple votes.[49]
The total turnout of voters was estimated to be almost 3.6 million out of a total of more than 10 million eligible voters.[49] The United Nations said that if five million people voted, the vote could be considered a success, given the difficulties of holding an election during a war.[49] The head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission said that he would consider the election a success if more than three million people voted, a tally that came to pass.[49] Out of a planned 5,816 open voting locations, authorities said that 92% had opened as scheduled, while the remainder had not opened due to security concerns.[49][51] The turnout was reported to be light due to Taliban threats.[52] However, the violence was also a lot less than expected.
Results
On September 26, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) ordered recounts at locations in seven provinces,[53] but left open the possibility of ordering recounts in other provinces. The recounts were ordered in Kunduz, Balkh, Takhar, Badakhshan and Parwan provinces in the north and northeast, Logar and Khost. At least five polling centres in eastern Khost province were declared invalid.[why?]
Preliminary results for all 34 provinces were originally due on October 8, but were unexpectedly put off citing the need to be "more accurate and precise."[54] However, they would still be subject to confirmation after the Electoral Complaints Commission adjudicates on its legality. Final, certified results were released on October 31.[55]
President Karzai responded to the allegations, saying "[i]t is early for us to make concrete judgment ... as far as the quality of the election is concerned, and organization, this is too early to judge. The president and government will make judgment after the relevant organisations have concluded their work."[60]
Fraud allegations
Additionally, more than 100 complaints of fraud were filed in the first weekend, with another 1,300 complaints submitted orally, though the election commission said that they would not be reviewed unless they were put into writing.[61] By September 26, 3,460 complaints had been received by the Electoral Complaints Commission.[62]
Many candidates demanded a suspension of the vote because of allegations of fraud and vote-rigging.[63]
The election commission voided more than 20%, or 1.3 million, of the ballots, after fraud investigations.[64]
Twenty-one elected parliamentarians were also disqualified due to fraud.[65] A spokesman of the electoral commission said that 19 of the candidates were winning or leading their races, while two others had failed to win seats.[66]
Despite ongoing allegations of fraud and disqualifications, Karzai agreed to open parliament if the said controversies were not brought up.[67]
On 23 June 2011, a special tribunal led by Sidiquallah Haqiq and set up by Karzai to probe election irregularities declared the election of 62 MPs void and others elected in their stead, about a quarter of the races in the election. The MPs have the right to appeal to the Afghan Supreme Court[68]
On August 21, 2011, The Afghanistan Independent Election Commission announced at a news conference that nine members of Parliament would be removed and that nine candidates, previously disqualified over electoral irregularities, would have their seats restored.[69]
Party results
Only a minority of candidates contested the election on a party ticket, whilst a number of elected MP's were loosely associated with certain parties. Below is a table detailing the NDI's assessment of formal party strength. Due to the often unclear nature of Afghan party politics the figures given are not exact, and do not include unofficial party supporters, but are instead limited to the candidates who openly declared their party allegiance.
The politics of Afghanistan consists of the council of ministers, provincial governors and the national assembly, with a president serving as the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Afghan Armed Forces. The nation is currently led by President Ashraf Ghani who is backed by two vice presidents, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Sarwar Danish. In the last decade the politics of Afghanistan have been influenced by NATO countries, particularly the United States, in an effort to stabilise and democratise the country. In 2004, the nation's new constitution was adopted and an executive president was elected. The following year a general election to choose parliamentarians took place.
Hamid Karzai is an Afghan politician who was the President of Afghanistan from 22 December 2001 to 29 September 2014, originally as an interim leader and then as President for almost ten years, from 7 December 2004 to 2014. He comes from a politically active family; Karzai's father, uncle and grandfather were all active in Afghan politics and government. Karzai and his father before him, Abdul Ahad Karzai, were each head of the Popalzai tribe of the Durrani tribal confederation.
An election to the office of President of Afghanistan was held on October 9, 2004. Hamid Karzai won the election with 55.4% of the votes and three times more votes than any other candidate. Twelve candidates received less than 1% of the vote. It is estimated that more than three-quarters of Afghanistan's nearly 12 million registered voters cast ballots. The election was overseen by the Joint Electoral Management Body, chaired by Zakim Shah and vice-chaired by Ray Kennedy, an American working for the United Nations.
This article gives information on elections in Afghanistan.
The Cabinet of Afghanistan is made of the heads of all the government ministries. The president selects the members of cabinet with the approval of the National Assembly. Candidates for a ministerial position must be an Afghan citizen, be at least 35 years of age and have higher education. Ministers, unlike the president and vice presidents, can have citizenship of another country, but the Wolesi Jirga has in the past rejected ministers for the reason of having dual citizenship.
Afghanistan held parliamentary and provincial council elections on 18 September 2005. The first results were declared on 9 October, with final results being delayed by accusations of fraud, and were finally announced on 12 November.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009. The election resulted in victory for incumbent Hamid Karzai, who won 49.67% of the vote, while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah finished second with 30.59% of the vote.
Abdullah Abdullah is an Afghan politician, serving as Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan since September 2014. From October 2001 to April 2005, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to that he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He also worked as a medical doctor during the late 1990s.
The Karzai administration was the government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai, who became the head of state of Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban government was overthrown. Karzai was appointed at the 2002 Loya Jirga as the Interim President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. After the 2004 Afghan presidential election, he became the President of Afghanistan.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced the holding of a consultative grand council called the Afghanistan's National Consultative Peace Jirga (NCPJ) or shortly Peace Jirga in his inauguration speech on 19 November 2009, after winning elections for a second term, to end the ongoing Taliban insurgency. At the International Afghanistan Conference in London on 28 January 2010, he announced that the government would hold the event in April or May 2010, intended to bring together tribal elders, officials and local power brokers from around the country, to discuss peace and the end of the insurgency. "Jirga" is a word in the Pashto language that means "large assembly" or "council". It is a traditional method in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan of resolving disputes between tribes or discussing problems affecting whole communities.
Fauzia Gailani was elected to represent Herat Province in Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of its National Legislature, in 2005. She won almost 16,885 votes, more than any other candidate in Herat.
Mawlawi Shahzada Shahid was elected to represent Kunar Province in Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of its National Legislature, in 2005.
Hasham Watanwal a representative for Uruzgan Province to Afghanistan's national legislature, the Wolesi Jirga, until he was assassinated on July 17, 2011.
Alhaj Zulmay Mujadidi is a member of the Afghan Lower House of Parliament from the Badakhshan Province and one of President Hamid Karzai's most loyal followers in the northeast of Afghanistan.
The second Karzai cabinet was the cabinet of Afghanistan that led the government from the re-election of president Hamid Karzai in 2009 until the end of his term in 2014. The cabinet consisted of the president, his two vice-presidents, 18 ministers who received approval from the Afghan Parliament, and 7 acting ministers who have not been approved.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 5 April 2014, with a second round held on 14 June. Incumbent President Hamid Karzai was not eligible to run due to term limits. The registration period for presidential nominations was open from 16 September 2013 until 6 October 2013. A total of 27 candidates were confirmed to be running for office. However, on 22 October Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission disqualified 16 of the candidates, leaving only 11 in the race. By April 2014 three candidates gave up the race and decided to support some of the eight remaining candidates. Opinion polls showed Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as the front-runners and indeed the results of the first round election had Abdullah in the lead and Ghani behind him. The second set of results came after the run-off on 14 June, two months after the first round. Preliminary results were expected on 2 July and the final result on 22 July. However, widespread accusations of fraud delayed these results. In September 2014, the Independent Election Commission named Ashraf Ghani the winner.
Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi is an Uzbek legislator and politician from Afghanistan. He is currently the Speaker for the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of its bicameral National Assembly; he has been speaker since at least 2011.
Parliamentary elections were held in Afghanistan on Saturday 20 October 2018 to elect members of the House of the People. They had originally been scheduled for 15 October 2016, but were initially postponed to 7 July 2018, and then again to 20 October. Much of the prelude to the elections has focused on the debate over reforming the country's electoral laws. The current system is one of single non-transferable vote. Kandahar's election was held on October 27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
