Afghan lawmakers’ vote vital in election
Afghan lawmakers are set to vote on Saturday for President Hamid
Karzai’s second list of cabinet nominees, after rejecting most of his
first choices, but are again expected to veto a high number.
Lawmakers voted against 17 of Karzai’s 24 original choices earlier
this month, delivering a blow to his authority, already undermined after
he was declared winner of an August election marred by massive fraud,
mostly in his favour.
Parliamentarians, diplomats and analysts said they expect up to one
third of his second round of choices to be rejected in a secret ballot
likely to take most of the day.
Afghanistan’s parliament has spent this week grilling the new
nominees 14 men and three women on their suitability for the posts,
after being ordered by the president to cancel their winter break to
consider the list.
“There has been a high degree of absenteeism during the questioning
of the nominees, and I expect a large number of them, perhaps one-third,
will be rejected,” said Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan’s Centre for
Research and Policy Studies.
A lack of political parties means there is little cohesion among
lawmakers or consultation before they vote.
MP Shukria Barakzai said a line seemed to have been drawn between
those parliamentarians who do not like what they see and those who want
to finalise the government.Barakzai said she believed more candidates
would pass the second round of voting, despite divisions among
lawmakers.
But, she added, “one thing is sure, not all the nominees will be
passed this time either.” Parliament’s initial rejection of 17 names was
seen as a huge blow to Karzai, who is under enormous pressure to prove
his commitment to clean and competent government in return for ongoing
Western support to rebuild the country and fight Taliban insurgents.
The rejection has left the country without a functioning government,
dragging out the political stasis that has prevailed since the August
election.Diplomats said Karzai wants a government in place ahead of an
international conference in London on January 28 to discuss the
country’s future.
The London conference will provide an opportunity for Afghanistan and
its Western supporters who together have 113,000 troops fighting the
Taliban-led insurgency under US and NATO command to formalise a
development and security plan in 2010, one European diplomat said.
Known for travelling with large entourages, Karzai is expected to be
accompanied by up to 11 ministers, diplomats and analysts said.
Karzai’s first list of nominees was a clear attempt to appease his
critics in the international community, many of whom have made continued
support conditional on concrete progress on eradicating corruption.
The seven ministerial nominees who did win approval including
interior, defence, agriculture and education had largely been given the
nod by his Western backers.
“We think the first names were broadly OK and it was a government we
could do business with,” a senior European diplomat said, speaking
anonymously.
“With the second lot, our concern is that they are political virgins,
and that there is a lot of political patronage involved,” he said,
echoing concerns that many have little experience but useful
connections.
Analysts said the new nominees represent a cross-section of
Afghanistan’s ethnic mix of Pashtun, Uzbek, Tajik and Hazara.
The list includes three women after the sole female nominee was
initially rejected, but analysts said political connections and not
competence appeared to be the main qualification for many in the new
line-up.
Other nominees have links to powerful warlords who helped Karzai in
the August election, analysts said.
At least one is aligned with feared Uzbek warlord General Abdul
Rashid Dostam; two are associated with former president and warlord
Burhanuddin Rabbani; and several with Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, an ethnic
Hazara former militia leader.
Also on the list is economy portfolio nominee Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal,
a former member of Hizb-i-Islami, who now leads a pro-government wing of
the moderate Islamist party. -AFP
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