Afghan parliamentary election, 2010
The parliamentary election in Afghanistan in 2010 was held on 18 September 2010. The members of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan National Assembly were elected. Approximately 2500 candidates, including more than 400 women competed for the 249 seats. Only about 10 percent of the candidates belonged to a political party. The minimum age for participation in the election was 18 years. On the 20th of October, the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC), the preliminary results of all constituencies known.
- 4.1 Final
- 4.2 Opening of Parliament
Schedule of choice
The official schedule of choice for the Wolesi Jirga saw, according to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan as follows:
On 7 July, the Electoral Complaints Commission announced that 31 people were removed from the list of candidates, because they belong to " illegal armed groups ".
Advance
The parliamentary election was originally to take place on May 22, 2010. The Afghan Independent Election Commission, which has been established in accordance with Article 156 of the Afghan Constitution, the organization and supervision of all elections in the country, but postponed the vote on September 18, 2010 even though a shift had been proposed at a still later date. Even before it is clear that 938 of the 6835 polling stations to remain closed in 25 of 34 provinces due to the security situation. That's about 14% of all polling stations. The Taliban threaten each participant choosing death. The candidates were threatened by the Taliban with kidnapping, torture and death, so they are protected by the ISAF. Nevertheless, several candidates have already been killed before the election. There are fears of electoral fraud, as in the 2009 presidential election.
Implementation
The Foundation Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan (Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan; FEFA ) reported extensive problems. Election observers of the Foundation have been reported from 389 polling irregularities. Thus, it was reported that ballots were missing and polling stations closed early. The turnout was dependent on the security situation and varied widely from place to place.
Security situation
In Kandahar, there were six explosions. The ISAF announced that there were violent incidents during the vote 485. In this case, 22 people were killed, including seven civilians, eleven Afghan security forces and four NATO soldiers.
Rocket attacks on polling stations, there were according to official figures in Kabul and the cities of Ghazni, Gardez and Jalalabad in the east, and the province of Kandahar Nimrus in the southwest. In the office in SURCH Rud in the province of Nangarhar armed Taliban prevented the election.
Workup
On 10 October 2010, the Electoral Complaints Commission ( Electoral Complaints Commission, ECC) announced that 175 candidates, including 25 deputies dedicated to the re-election presented, are suspected of fraud. In the Authority a total of 4,100 complaints about the electoral process have been received. On October 20, the chairman of the ECC, Fazel Ahmad Manaawi explained that there were 1.3 million invalid votes. 2,500 of the 18,000 polling stations were not counted.
27 December 2010, Hamid Karzai gave a decree out provides for the establishment of a special tribunal that will investigate all complaints to vote. On the same day he announced the parliament as scheduled to swear in on 20 January 2011.
Final result
The official election results for Afghanistan, with the exception of the province of Ghazni was released on November 24, 2010. The eleven seats in Ghazni were still controversial, as in the province mainly of members of the minority Hazara went to the polls, the Pashtuns majority but not selected. In the wake of President Hamid Karzai complained to the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission and the results of this province were still retained.
The interpretation of the results is difficult because the candidates do not specify a party affiliation. Only ninety members of the old Parliament of 2005 were re-elected.
According to the testimony of Abdullah Abdullah ninety candidates came into parliament who support him.
Of the more than four hundred sixty-nine female candidates were elected to parliament.
On 1 December, the Electoral Commission also announced the hitherto withheld results of Ghazni Province. Thus go the eleven seats to members of the Hazara ethnic minority.
Opening of Parliament
On 20 January 2011, President Karzai announced that the planned for the January 23 opening of Parliament is shifted by one month. The reason for this was a requirement of the special tribunal that was convened on 27 December of Karzai. Due to the massive criticism of the deputies, the U.S. and the UN, Karzai finally drew one yet.
In the night from 25 to 26 January occupied about 180 to 200 losing candidates to the presidential palace to protest against the decision of Karzai, the day after convene the first session of Parliament.
The Wolesi Jirga finally held their first meeting on January 26 from after the elections.