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Afghan parliamentary vote set for September
Afghanistan will elect its first post-Taliban parliament on Sept. 18, officials announced Sunday, setting a date for the country's next major step toward democracy.
With opponents of President Hamid Karzai itching for a legislative platform, the country's election chief said he hoped the much-delayed ballot would help cement its fragile peace.
"I hope this news will be a message of peace, stability and prosperity for the new year," Bismil said. Sunday is the last day of the Afghan year 1383.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for June last year, but both were delayed because of the slow pace of preparations and efforts to disarm warlords and militia commanders who the United Nations' feared would intimidate voters.
Karzai won the presidential vote in October by a landslide. But the legislative ballot was postponed until May, and then again to September because of problems including the lack of an accurate census and squabbles over district boundaries.
The commission said district elections would be held later and the upper house of parliament would be composed for an interim period of representatives from the provincial councils and presidential appointees.
Afghan political leaders are divided over the delay.
Sebghatullah Sanjar, leader of the pro-Karzai Republican Party, applauded the September date because it gave Afghanistan's novice political parties the whole summer to campaign. There will also be time to register more returning refugees, said Sanjar, who plans to contest a seat in Kabul.
But Mohammed Mohaqeq, who finished third in the presidential vote with strong support from the country's Shiite minority, complained that the delay leaves Karzai with too much power for too long.
"This just prolongs the life of his government, " said Mohaqeq, who left Karzai's interim government after a dispute last year. "We will accept it because we have no choice, but we are not happy."
Parliamentary elections are supposed to complete a political process agreed in Bonn, Germany, after U.S. and allied Afghan forces drove out the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.
During a visit to Kabul last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would support Afghanistan as it prepares for the vote.
"We will stand by the Afghan people as they go through the next stage in their democratic development, the parliamentary elections that will take place this fall. We look forward to continuing to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," she said.
Even with four more months, election organizers admit they face a daunting challenge.
The joint U.N.-Afghan election board can draw on the experience of Afghans who helped organize the presidential vote, for which 10.5 million people registered, 40 percent of them women.
Security may also be easier, as thousands of new national army and police officers will have completed their training.
But this round of elections is vastly more complicated, involving up to 10,000 candidates and a host of fledgling political parties. It will also test the generosity of international donors. So far, only $18 million has been donated toward the budget of $148 million, most of it from the United States. |
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