Parliamentary electoral system
is not suitable for Afghanistan
Abdul Khaliq Fazal
October 6, 2010
We have witnessed the last two parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. One
was held in 2005 and the second in September 2010. Both of these elections
consisted of several problems. It seems like the Independent Election Commission
of Afghanistan (IECA) has not learned from the mistakes and problems they have
made during the 2009 presidential election.
There were many reports of vote riggings, including circumstances where
individuals voted several times, which showed that individuals had obtained more
than one voting identification card. Another issue was that the ink used to
identify the individual voting was easy to remove from the fingers. Also,
fake voting cards were printed in Peshawar and were used in several polling
stations.
It was claimed that in several voting stations, the voting boxes were filled
with more votes in favor of a particular candidate than the total amount of
votes that were cast in that station . Many voters also claimed that a number of
candidates had threatened them to vote for them otherwise their life would be in
danger. These threats to potential voters were also made by government
officials.
Issues also arose with the running of the voting stations. Some voting
stations were not opened on time, and some even did not have the right
facilities for punching the cards.
The issues mentioned above and more of the problems which arose during the
voting period were widely publicized both in the local and international media.
Despite all these criticisms of the IECA, it still was unable to resolve at
least part of the problems.
The election has been over for several weeks; however the results of the
election are still unknown. The candidates are questioning the skills,
capability, activities and independency of the IECA. At the same time the
candidates and the general Afghan people do not trust the impartiality of IECA.
People do not trust the independency of the IECA and its voting counting
system, because from day one there have not been representatives of the
candidates in the polling stations in which the counting has been taking place.
We must understand that it is impossible for every candidate to have their
representatives in every polling station, to be able to watch voting and
scrutinize everything closely because of the wrong parliamentary system we are
having.
PROBLEMS WITH THE PARLIAMENTARY LAW SYSTEM
The above issued clearly indicates that the current parliamentary system is
not suitable to the structure of Afghanistan and its situation. Why?
First, it is very easy for a person to be nominated or be a candidate for the
parliament. The conditions and criteria are very simple, and are not suitable
for the structure of Afghanistan. Each province is allocated a particular number
of seats in the parliament, thus the province is not being divided to districts
or zones, therefore in this system the candidates cannot over see the right
process of the election, vote counting, and correct honest results. Once the
voting boxes are taken to the head quarters of the IEC for counting, and are kept
there for several nights anything can occur. At the end whomever the IECA
declares the winner has to be accepted by the candidates. Thus this system is not
clear, visible and honest and democratic.
Second, the number of candidates in each province are so many that, it makes it
very difficult for a person to vote for the candidate of his or her choice.
Let’s not forget that a high percentage of Afghans are illiterate and are not
able to even find in the ballot paper the person of their choice to vote for,
especially in the countryside. This issue has and would create lots of
problems for those people to vote. At the same time it is and will be very
difficult for the people of a particular district to go and see their
representative in the Parliament, because his district may not be represented by
a member of their district.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO CLEAN, CLEAR AND MAKE HONEST THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS?
First, there has to be changes in the parliament election system. It should
be made more difficult for an individual to nominate themselves as a candidate.
For example, currently a potential candidate who knows that he or she has no
chances of winning the votes of the people can easily nominate themselves for
the parliament.
The condition for a person to be candidate for the parliament has to be
stricter. Only individuals with good qualities, good background, and who are
committed to serve the country and well known within the community, should have
the opportunity to stand for the parliament as he or she would be able to serve
the interests of the people.
There should be 100,000 Afghanis paid to IEC.
The candidates must produce 1000 voting cards from the zone he or she is
standing for.
The rest of the condition which are already in the IEC system for person to
be the candidate for the parliament.
Strict conditions for a person to stand for the parliament would bring the
number of candidates down and at the same time would encourage good and quality
people to go to the parliament.
249 SEATS IN PARLIAMENT
The current number of the parliament is 249 members. This number is too high
for Afghanistan in comparison to other countries. Nevertheless it can be
corrected by the following actions; the number of parliamentary seats allocated
to each province can be divided to the same number of divisions in that
province, and one person can represent that division not the whole province.
People interested in being a candidate for the parliament, can chose the
division of which he or she want to stand for. This will bring the number of the
candidates lower, and the candidates would be able to do the election campaign
within the area of that division. At the same time it will be easy for the
voters to go and vote for the person of their choice.
During the election day, each candidates can have one representative in each
polling station and at the end of the day the official of the IECA can count the
votes in front of the candidates' representatives. The results of the election
can even be declared on that night and there would not be disputes over the
winner of the election.
The parliamentary system that I am currently recommending for Afghanistan to
adopt has previously operated in Afghanistan. I remember very well, that in the
parliamentary election of 1965 our house in Kandahar was the center of the
campaign for the late Abdul Ahad Khan Karzai who was the candidate for Division
Two of Kandahar City. I was working in his campaign and by 9.00PM of the voting
day the representative (scrutinizer) of the candidate came and said that Abdul
Ahad Khan Karzai had won the seat.
That system was well received by the people of Afghanistan and people were
used to it. At the same time people in each district knew who their member of
parliament is and could go and see that member for their problems.
I am not sure who came up with the current parliamentary election system.
However it seems that whoever has designed this system did not do their study of
the Afghan multi tribal nation and the problems with it.
Yes there was this argument that during the past 20 years the number of
districts in Afghanistan has increased dramatically in some of the
provinces, and if the parliamentary system works on the old system which was
during his majesty king Mohammad Zahir shah last 8 years of government, then
that would create imbalance in the parliament provincial and tribal
representatives. This was and is a problem and should be resolved in time, but
what I am advocating is that the current 249 parliament seats be divided
into 34 provinces.
Each province should be divided to the number of parliamentary zones on the
number of their parliamentary quotas. For example Kabul province quota is 33
seats, then Kabul should be divided to 33 zones, thus people can chose in which
zone they want to be a candidate for, and people of that zone can vote only within
his or her zone.
Abdul Khaliq Fazal was the former Minister of Public Works from 2001-2002,
President of the Evaluation and Privatization Commission of Public Enterprises
from 2002-2004, and an advisor to President Karzai in the 2004 Presidential
Elections. He can be reached at
a_k_fazal@yahoo.com.au
Back to Top
