Chaos Blocks Vote on the Constitution

The Loya Jirga descended into chaos on Tuesday, with delegates shouting demands, refusing to vote, and walking out in anger and disgust. Even the chairman of the gathering abandoned the assembly as a high level of tension filled the hall.

The breakdown delayed by one day the voting on 12 articles of the revised constitution that had been scheduled to come up for a vote.

The outburst began during the morning session, when the day’s programme was first announced. Several dozen delegates demanded to speak and began shouting when they weren't allowed to take the microphone.

The main objection came from a group of delegates led by Waqif Hakimi, who is a spokesman for the Jamiat-e-Islami party. Hakimi got into a shouting match with Safia Siddiqi, deputy chairwoman of the Loya Jirga, when he claimed that the revised constitution did not include amendments that his group wanted.

Siddiqi retorted, "You want to bring chaos to the Loya Jirga, you want the Loya Jirga to fail."

Hakimi said that he and others had written changes to six articles that were accepted in the coordination committee, but did not appear in the revised constitution distributed on Monday.

This raised the question of how the revised draft of the constitution was written. It was to be done by members of the constitutional commission under supervision by international observers and the coordination committee, which included the leadership of the 10 working committees and the leaders of the Loya Jirga. The additions or deletions were to be based on the suggestions of coordination committee, which, in turn, was to represent the opinions of all the other committees.

Hakimi charged that the changes that were ignored, included those creating a High Council to implement the new constitution, making Uzbek an official language along with Dari and Pashtu, setting up an interim parliament until elections could be held, prohibiting those who have ever held dual citizenship from becoming ministers, prohibiting ministers from having foreign wives and giving parliament the authority to print new currency.

He accused Reconstruction Minister Mohammed Amen Farhang and Afghanistan central bank head Anwarul Haq Ahadi of removing the agreed upon changes and substituting their own wording. "By doing this they are playing with the knowledge of the delegates in the committees," Hakimi said.

Hakimi also said there were many other changes made in the 10 working committees that were not included in the revision.

Siddiqi eventually managed to quiet the group.

However, when Faroq Wardak, head of the secretariat of the constitutional commission, later read 12 of the 25 articles to the gathering, many delegates loudly objected when they were told by Loya Jirga chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddidi that there would not be enough time to debate the articles.

The delegates cried out, demanding time to speak, but their calls for an open debate were ignored. Wardak read the articles without interruption, and the group then broke for lunch.

When the body reconvened, the logistics of voting on the 12 articles was explained to the delegates. Some went to their assigned area to begin voting, but others stayed off to the side, in effect boycotting the vote.

Mujaddidi appeared to be angry about the boycott, and left the hall. Delegates milled around complaining and gossiping amongst themselves.

Burhanudin Rabbani, head of Jamiat and a member of the coordination committee, said his panel had debated and made some suggestions concerning the articles but that these suggestions were not included in the revised constitution.

Rabbani warned that "any decision taken by anyone other than the delegates will cause national disunity and war."

Kandahar delegate Ahmad Wali Hotuk said, "Most of the delegates agree. But there are some people... who want to bring chaos to the meeting. The head and secretary of each committee had membership on the coordination committee; they should have made their suggestions then."

Mujaddidi eventually came back and recited a poem of forgiveness. The delegates applauded. He chided the delegates, saying "It gets so hot that it's close to burning everyone; or it gets so cold that this poor old white-haired man goes home and puts on a robe. May God lead us to a balanced way."

He said that in the evening the leadership would try to resolve the differences and satisfy everyone. He concluded by dismissing the session for the day.

The revised draft of the constitution was presented to the 502 delegates on Monday and parts of it were approved at that session. The delegates were given three hours to read the draft and complete a form indicating whether or not they approved of each article in the revised constitution.

If an article failed to achieve a simple majority, it then would be debated by the entire assembly before coming up for a final vote. There were 25 such articles, according to Loya Jirga officials.

IWPR staff reporters Farida Nekzad, Danish Karokhel and Rahimullah Samander contributed to this report, along with Quyom Baabak, an independent journalist from Mazar-e-Sharif. They are all participating in IWPR’s Loya Jirga reporting project.