Afghanistan Government

Politics of Afghanistan

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In recent years the politics of Afghanistan have been dominated by the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, by the NATO forces and the subsequent efforts to stabilise and democratise the country. The nation's new constitution has been adopted and an executive president democratically elected in 2004. The parliamentary elections took place the following year, in September 2005.

The current president Hamid Karzai was declared the first ever democratically elected head of state in Afghanistan on December 7, 2004. He was re-elected in 2009. Karzai has begun the process of rebuilding his nation. The National Assembly is Afghanistan's national legislature. It is a bicameral body, composed of the House of the People and the House of the Elders. The current legislature was elected on September 18, 2005. The members of the Supreme Court were appointed by the president to form the judiciary. Together, this new system is to provide a new set of checks and balances that was unheard of in the country. Also, the system is quite new, implementation of which began only 2004, just after decades of war between different factions and warlords. The United Nations and other governments and organizations play a vital role in rebuilding this new democracy's political environment.

Brief timeline of recent Afghan politics

Government operation in Afghanistan has in the past consisted of power struggles, bloody coups and unstable transfers of power. With the exception of a military junta, the country has been governed by every system of government over the past century, including a monarchy, republic, capitalism, theocracy, dictatorship, socialism and a pro-communist state.

1919 - Last of three Anglo-Afghan wars. King Amanullah Khan takes the throne of an independent Kingdom of Afghanistan.

1973 - Mohammed Daoud Khan, Prime Minister and a member of the royal family, seizes power while King Mohammad Zahir Shah is in Italy.

1978 – The leftist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan seizes power after an attempted purge.

1979 – President Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated and replaced by his Prime Minister, Hafizullah Amin. Amin is then assassinated and the Soviet Union invades. Babrak Karmal is installed as president.

1987 - Mohammad Najibullah replaces Babrak Karmal as president.

1989 – Soviet army leaves Afghanistan.

1992 – Communist regime falls to mujahideen. Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani becomes president of the new Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

1996 – Kabul falls to the Taliban.

2001 – U.S. and coalition forces invade Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai is appointed President.[1]

2003 - Loya Jirga adopts new constitution, restructuring the government as an Islamic republic.

2004 - Hamid Karzai is elected president of Afghanistan.

Background

Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic consisting of three branches of power (executive, legislative, and judiciary) overseen by checks and balances. It is currently led by President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2009. Before the election of 2004, Karzai led the country after being chosen by delegates of the Bonn Conference in late 2001 to head an interim government after the fall of the Taliban. While supporters have praised Karzai's efforts to promote national reconciliation and a growing economy, critics charge him with failing to stem corruption and the growing drug trade, and the slow pace of reconstruction.

The current parliament was elected in 2005. Among the elected officials were former Mujahideen, Taliban members, communists, reformists, and Islamic fundamentalists. Surprisingly, 28% of the delegates elected were women, 3% more than the 25% minimum guaranteed under the constitution. Ironically, this made Afghanistan, long known under the Taliban for its oppression of women, one of the leading countries in terms of female representation.

The Supreme Court of Afghanistan is currently led by Chief Justice Abdul Salam Azimi. Dominated by fundamentalist religious figures, it has tried to ban a candidate in the 2004 presidential election for questioning polygamy laws, and limited the rights of women, as well as overstepped its constitutional authority by issuing rulings on subjects not yet brought before the court.

The former Taliban regime
Main article: Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
On September 27, 1996, the ruling members of the Afghan government were displaced by members of the Islamic Taliban movement. The Taliban declared themselves the legitimate government of Afghanistan; however, the UN continued to recognize the former government of Burhanuddin Rabbani.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference left the Afghan seat vacant until the question of legitimacy could be resolved through negotiations among the warring factions.

By the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks only Pakistan recognized the Taliban government, though Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had in the past.

The Taliban occupied 95% of the territory, called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The remaining 5% belonged to the rebel forces called the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (Northern Alliance), which the United Nations had recognized as the official government in exile.

U.S.-led Invasion
Main article: War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
After the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden to U.S. authorities for his suspected involvement in the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., a US-led international coalition was formed; after several weeks of aerial bombardment by coalition forces and military action on the ground, including Afghan opposition forces, the Taliban was officially ousted from power on November 17, 2001.

Bonn Agreement
Main article: Bonn Agreement (Afghanistan)
In December 2001, a number of prominent Afghans met under UN auspices in Germany, to decide on a plan for governing the country; as a result, the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) - made up of 30 members, headed by a chairman - was inaugurated on December 22, 2001, with a six-month mandate to be followed by a two-year Transitional Authority (TA), after which elections are to be held. Some provisions in the agreement have expired, due to the creation of the constitution. Still, the agreement paved the way for the creation of a democratic Afghanistan.

A new Constitution
See also: 2003 loya jirga
See also: Constitution of Afghanistan
The structure of the Transitional Authority was announced on June 10, 2002, when the Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) convened establishing the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA), which had 18 months to hold a constitutional Loya Jirga to adopt a constitution and 24 months to hold nationwide elections. The Loya Jirga was replaced by the National Assembly.

Under the Bonn Agreement the Afghan Constitution Commission was established to consult with the public and formulate a draft constitution. The meeting of a constitutional Loya Jirga was held in December 2003, when a new constitution was adopted creating a presidential form of government with a bicameral legislature: the House of Elders (Meshrano Jirga) and the House of the people (Wolesi Jirga).

Foreign Military Presence
Troops and intelligence agencies from the United States and a number of other countries are present, some to support the government, others assigned to hunt for remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A United Nations military force called the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has been operating in Kabul since December 2001. NATO took control of this Force on August 11, 2003. Eurocorps took over the responsibility for ISAF on August 9, 2004.

 
Inside the Parliament House of Afghanistan in 2006.

Elections
National elections were held on October 9, 2004. Over 10 million Afghans were registered to vote. Most of the 17 candidates opposing Karzai boycotted the election, charging fraud;[2] an independent commission found evidence of fraud, but ruled that it did not affect the outcome of the poll. Karzai won 55.4% of the vote.[3] He was inaugurated as president on December 7 of that year. It was the country's first national election since 1969, when parliamentary elections were last held.

On September 18, 2005, parliamentary elections were held; the parliament opened on the following day, December 19. On December 20 Karzai's close ally and president of the first mujahideen government, Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, was picked to head the 102-seat upper house. On December 21, Yunus Qanuni, Afghan opposition leader and Karzai's main opponent was chosen to lead the 249-seat lower house of parliament with 122 votes against 117 for his closest challenger.