Kabul, July 16: Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree today establishing the procedure for choosing delegates to a new traditional assembly, which is to adopt the country's next Constitution in October. After the constitutional Loya Jirga approves the draft in October, preparations may begin for elections to be held by June 2004 under the Bonn Agreement signed in 2001 following the fall of the Taliban.
Of the 500 members of the Loya Jirga, 450 are to be elected by representatives of the population and 50 will be designated by Karzai himself, stated an official news agency report citing the decree signed by the head of state.
District representatives, numbering 15,000, will vote for 344 of the elected delegates to the Loya Jirga, while 42 members -- 15 percent of whom must be female -- will be elected to represent refugees, nomads, the displaced and Hindu and Sikh minorities.
Afghan women will also choose 64 female delegates to the traditional assembly, according to the decree.
Elections are to start in August, with district representatives meeting in the country's major cities to choose delegates by simple majority, a process that will be dictated by the Afghan Constitution Commission.
The commission, charged with establishing the new fundamental laws for the country, has since June 7 coordinated a nationwide public consultation on the new Constitution. The consultation period was criticized as it did not make the draft document available to the very public that was to comment on it. Bureau Report