Afghan parliamentary election, 1949

The parliamentary election in Afghanistan in 1949, the seventh since the establishment of the first elected Afghan parliament in 1931, presented the first free election of Shura -e- Melli, the lower house of the Afghan Parliament dar.

Background

The Afghan Constitution of 1931 provided for the establishment of a bicameral parliament, of which the deputies of the lower house were determined by popular vote. The legislature was three years from 1931 elections were held regularly. A parliament in the Western sense was this Volkstretung but not that parties did not exist, the deputies were in fact appointed, not elected, a parliamentary opposition was practically not. The real power lay with the Afghan Prime Minister, Parliament ultimately confirmed only its decisions.

Electoral system

Entitled to vote all the men were after was Vollendnung the age of 20, elected for a kind of majority voting. The electoral law of 1931 stipulated that gathered on election day, voters in the provincial cities and discussed under the supervision of government officials and religious leaders about the candidates or their region. The candidate, to which the Assembly finally agreed, was sent as a deputy to Kabul. Only if no agreement was reached, was actually matched. Practically, this meant that the People's Assembly elected into parliament proposed by the local authorities candidates by acclamation.

Expiration

1946 Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan became Prime Minister, he began a cautious liberalization and democratization of the country. The establishment of independent newspapers have been approved, and it created the first political groupings. The vote of 1949, thus also the first time the character of a real choice: There were several candidates to choose from, these were partly already assigned non- political groups, even if they are not yet acted to parties. The elected members were not already clear from the outset and also opposition candidates had to collect a chance to parliament to parliament.

Results

Figures on voter turnout and accurate election results are not known, as with all early Afghan elections, they were never officially released, the archives may have been destroyed during the civil war. The exact number of members is not known, this varied from 116 at the first election in 1931 and 171 in the last such election in 1961. Known is that were associated with about 40 to 50 of the deputies in any way the opposition.

Aftermath

The 1949 comparatively freely elected parliament was dubbed in later publications as " liberal parliament". For the Government unexpectedly deputies practiced strongly criticized the ruling system, they issued by lively debates some liberal reforms, including freedom of the press. There was a diverse, critical press and numerous political groups of various kinds, but these had little influence on the broad masses of the population. 1952 should finally also established a first Opposositionspartei, after which the government made ​​the democratic approaches abruptly reversed. Opposition activists were arrested and banned their newspapers, the elections of 1952 were carried out again on the type of previous elections.