Politics

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. As of 2006, the system of government in Afghanistan is in transition. A new constitution has been adopted, and an executive president democratically elected, and parliamentary elections took place in September 2005.

The current president Hamid Karzai became the first ever democratically elected head of state in Afghanistan in late 2004. He now has begun the process of reconstruction. Still, the country lacks a legislature. Elections for this branch of government were supposed to have finished by mid 2005. The members of the Supreme Court were appointed recently by the president to form the judiciary. The United Nations and other governments and organisations play a vital role rebuilding this new democracy's political environment.

Background

Politics in Afghanistan has historically consisted of power struggles, bloody coups and unstable transfers of power. With the exception of a military junta, the country has been governed by nearly every system of government over the past century, including a monarchy, republic, theocracy and communist state. The constitution ratified by the 2003 Loya jirga restructured the government as an Islamic republic consisting of three branches of power (executive, legislative, and judiciary) overseen by checks and balances.

In December 2001, a number of prominent Afghans met under UN auspices in Bonn, 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 22 December 2001 with a six-month mandate to be followed by a two-year Transitional Authority (TA), after which elections were to be held.

The structure of the Transitional Authority was announced on 10 June 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.

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; 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. He was inaugurated as president on December 7. 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 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.

Current Situation

Afghanistan is currently led by President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in October 2004. Before the election, Karzai led the country after being chosen by delegates of the Bonn Conference in 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 reign in the country's warlords, inability 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 mujahadeen, Taliban fighters, 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, a former university professor who had been legal advisor to the president. The previous court, appointed during the time of the interim government, had been dominated by fundamentalist religious figures, including Chief Justice Faisal Ahmad Shinwari. The court had issued numerous questionable rulings, such as banning cable television, seeking to ban a candidate in the 2004 presidential election and limiting the rights of women, as well as overstepping its constitutional authority by issuing rulings on subjects not yet brought before the court. The current court is seen as more moderate and led by more technocrats than the previous court, although it has yet to issue any rulings.

Law Enforcement

Plans call for Afghanistan to have a national police force of 50,000. Although the police officially are responsible for maintaining civil order, local and regional military commanders continue to exercise control in the hinterland. Police have been accused of improper treatment and detention of prisoners. In 2003, the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force, now under command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was extended and expanded beyond the Kabul area. However, in some areas unoccupied by those forces, local militias maintain control. In many areas, crimes have gone uninvestigated because of insufficient police and/or communications. Troops of the Afghan National Army have been sent to quell fighting in some regions lacking police protection.