Afghanistan
Description of Electoral System
(Courtesy of IFES election guide)
The President is elected by direct vote to serve a 5-year term. In the House of People (Wolesi Jirga) 249 members are elected by direct vote to serve 5-year terms. In the House of Elders (Meshrano Jirga), 34 members are elected from within the Provincial Councils to serve 4-year terms, 34 members are elected from within the District Councils to serve 3-year terms and 34 members are appointed by the president to serve 5-year terms. The total number of seats may vary, but can be no more than 249 seats.The presidential appointees will include two representatives of Kuchis and two representatives of the disabled; half of the presidential appointees will be women.
The 2009 Elections
(courtesy of the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan(IEC))
The presidential and provincial council elections were held August 20, 2009. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) organized the first Afghan-led election in three decades. The IEC has been given the authority to set the election calendar, create and issue election-related regulations, and logistically organize the polling and vote counting for the election.
Campaign – According to Article 38 of the Electoral Law, the electoral campaign periods begins two months for Polling Day, and ends 48 hours before Polling Day. The IEC declared the campaign began on June 11, 2009, and continued until August 18, 2009.
Candidate Registration – The Independent Election Commission (IEC) released the final candidate lists for the presidential and provincial council elections on June 11, 2009. For the presidential election 41 people have registered as candidates, including two women. For the provincial council election, 3,180 candidates have officially registered, including 307 women. Twenty-seven more women registered for this election compared to the previous election. Positions on the ballot papers were determined by a public lottery system.
Election Date – Article 61 of the Constitution states the presidential term ends on May 22nd of the term’s fifth year. The same article also requires the election to occur 30-60 days before the end of the president’s term. Therefore, the election must occur in March or April. The IEC recommended that the election be moved to August 20 due to logistic and weather-related constraints. President Karzai publicly stated he wanted the election to be held in March or April to ensure the elections complied with the Constitution. The matter was referred to the Supreme Court who ruled that the August date was necessary for a free and fair election. It also extended the length of Mr. Karzai and his vice presidents’ terms until the inauguration of the next president.
Voter Registration – For the previous presidential election in 2004, over 11 million people registered to vote. For the 2005 national assembly election, 1.7 million people received new cards or corrected errors on existing cards.
The IEC conducted a new round of voter registration from October 2008 – February 2009 in four phases. The exercise registered over 4.3 million new voters in total, of which 38 percent were women. According to the IEC’s official numbers,
· First phase (October 6-November 4, 2008) – 1,295,347 people registered
· Second phase (November 5-December 4, 2008) – 1,650,438 people registered
· Third phase (December 12, 2008-January 12, 2009) – 924,023 people registered
· Fourth phase (January 20-February 18, 2009) – 495,484 people registered
Voter registration occurred throughout the country in all but ten districts, where security concerns prevented registration sites from being opened. The districts represent less than two percent of the total electorate. Mobile voter registration teams have been commissioned in those areas to register as many people as possible before Election Day. The mobile teams continued their work until a week before the elections.
