Learn and better understand the system of governance used by the country of Afghanistan and how their elections work in my new A to Z political post series.

1. Charlie Cornwell February 4, 2019
The Government of – Afghanistan
theweeklyrambler.com/the-government-of-afghanistan/
Hello and welcome to my new series of politics related blogposts to do with how each
countries government system works in general terms, going through each country
from A to Z. Today we first begin with Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a country in the south of Asia and is completely landlocked, bordered by
six different countries, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and a small
part of China. Its capital city is Kabul and as of a 2017 census, its population is coming
up to 36 million inhabitants. Afghanistan has had a troubled political history that has
included numerous wars with the country remaining unstable from the threat of
Islamic Fundamentalist groups, such as the Taliban, that want to assert control and
view the current government as illegitimate, international forces, who have been
fighting the extremist insurgents alongside the Afghan army remain in the country,
although have begun slowly scaling down.
Government Type
National Emblem of Afghanistan, this rendition is owned by the Bahij Virtual
Academy (Wikipedia) – Creative Commons License
– https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en – By Bahij Virtual Academy –
Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?
curid=69028250
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2. The government of Afghanistan is officially an Islamic Republic, meaning that the
country adheres to Islamic Laws, although it does not necessarily use all Islamic Laws,
but perhaps certain Islamic Laws, there are three other countries under an Islamic
Republic but not each of them are exactly the same, for varying reasons such as
different creeds of Islam as well as different interpretations and modernist reforms.
The country of Afghanistan is an emerging democracy, meaning that the principles of
democratic government and election of officials and politicians are coming into place
but that it may not be consistent, properly regulated or fully implemented yet for
various reasons that include destabilization of the country and corruption among
other reasons.
The country is led and represented by a democratically elected President who acts as
Head of State, meaning they represent the country abroad and also as the
Commander-in-Chief, meaning they have various executive powers over the countries
armed forces and also Head of Government, meaning the president has many
executive powers and is charged with overseeing the government and its
processes. The President also has two Vice-Presidents who act as advisors and there
was a new executive position created after the disputed 2014 election to calm tensions
between sides, called the Chief Executive of Afghanistan, the position remains below
the president but it has great and direct persuasive power access to ministers and the
president.
Political parties are allowed in Afghanistan but are often poorly organized, their
candidates as well as any Independant candidates are elected to the legislative branch
by separate parliamentary elections, the bicameral chamber is in charge of creating
and voting through laws as well as other powers.
Elections remain dangerous times in Afghanistan as it is a time where Islamic
Fundamentalist groups often choose to do deadly attacks in an attempt to destabilize
the growing democracy of Afghanistan, something they are strongly against.
The Executive Government
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3. Picture of Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of Afghanistan (Left) and Ashraf Ghani,
President of Afghanistan (Right). Former US Secretary of State, John Kerry sits between
them. The picture was taken as part of US Government Work and is in the public
domain and free to use. The picture was taken during the 2014 election dispute.
The Executive Government of Afghanistan includes the President and his two Vice-
Presidents and the President’s Cabinet made up of 25 appointed Ministers (appointed
by the president and confirmed by the Lower House of the Legislative Chamber) as
well as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan position created in 2014. The President
promotes the countries interests abroad and has great control over the armed forces
of Afghanistan. The Vice-Presidents act as advisors to the President and the CEA has
special access to ministers and the president as well as an advisor role towards the
President.
The President is elected by popular vote in Presidential Elections which are held every
five years, the presidency has a term limit of two terms, meaning one person
can serve as president for the max of 10 years, given they are elected a 2 time,
otherwise they can run again in the next election, but the term limit still stands.
There are several requirements to be eligible to run for president of Afghanistan, they
include being a Muslim Afghan citizen born from Afghan parents, be at least 40 years
old, to not have been convicted of a criminal act and as already said, not to have
already served two terms as president. These rules are laid into law by article 62 of
Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution, enforced by Afghanistan’s Supreme Court.
As well as executive duties such as appointing ministers and judicial judges,
representing the country abroad and holding power over armed forces among other
processes, the President also has many overreaching powers on the legislative
process, including the ability to sign in laws (or to refuse) without too many checks and
nd
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4. balances on this part of the presidency, which can make the Legislative Bicameral
Chamber weak against the President at times, this is most often a trait of emerging
democracies.
The Legislative Government
The photo was made by the US Federal Government and so is in the public domain
and free to use.
The Legislative side of Government is run by a bicameral parliamentary system,
meaning there are two houses of elected and/or appointed representatives, a lower
and upper house, that are in charge of debating and voting on pieces of legislation
that may then on be signed into law by the executive branch of government.
The Lower House, which is called the House of the People, actually acts as the main
maker and passer of laws, whereby the Upper House, called the House of Elders, has
more of an advisory and/or oversee position that has certain veto powers on Lower
House decisions/outcomes, which is similar to how it works in the UK between the
House of Commons and House of Lords. The House of the People also has certain
checks on presidential executive power, such as voting to confirm certain presidential
executive appointees.
The House of the People are fully elected by popular votes and the number of
members it has varies by the populations of each of the constituencies. Meanwhile the
House of Elders has a set number of 102 seats that are all appointed, some by local
legislative chambers/councils and others by the President, terms vary in the House of
Elders from 3, 4 or 5 years, depending on how they were appointed/elected, but all
members of the House of the People have a 5-year term.
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5. A constitutional Loya Jirga (Grand Council) can be called on matters of great
importance, it includes members of the House of the People and House of Elders as
well as chair-members from provincial and district councils. The Loya Jirga can make
decisions on territorial integrity, national sovereignty and bring forth amendments to
Afghanistan’s Constitution, the Loya Jirga also has the ability to prosecute the
President for crimes. As of yet a Loya Jirga has not been called, even in the face of
certain overreaches by the President, such as the President nominating more
members than he should to the House of Elders (instead of the councils electing
them).
The Electoral Process
GNU Free Documentation License
– https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Documentation_License,_
version_1.2 – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghanistan2004election.png
Afghanistan’s electoral process is recent and very unstable in terms of being targeted
by Islamic Extremist groups, elections can be unsafe times in Afghanistan. Elections
can also end up being controversial, with sides not agreeing with the outcome due to
potential corruption likely down to lack of proper electoral regulation.
There are two elections in Afghanistan, Presidential elections where the President is
elected to office by the people and Parliamentary elections where the House of the
People members (the lower house of the legislative chamber) are elected by popular
vote in multi-seat constituencies, the number of seats a constituency has is based on
the size of the population within it, so the size of the House of the People can change
from election to election.
Both Presidential elections and Parliamentary elections happen every 5 years.
Presidential elections use the popular vote to elect a leader and uses a two-
round system, meaning the top voted candidates will advance to the 2 round,
although in some cases, a 2 round does not happen if one of the candidates gets
more than 50% of the vote in the 1 round of the election.
Parliamentary elections to elect members of the House of the People use a
Proportional Representation system where a vote is single and non-transferable
meaning each person has a single vote and if the candidate loses the vote is discarded,
nd
nd
st
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6. proportional representation basically means the percentage of the total vote that a
party gets is the proportion they will make up within the House of the People.
The Upper House of the Legislative Chamber, the House of Elders 102-member seats,
are elected in three different ways, 34 members are indirectly elected by district
councils to serve a 3-year term, another 34 members are elected by provincial councils
to serve 4-year terms and another 34 are nominated by the president to serve 5-year
terms. There are rules for the upper house to follow when members are chosen, at
least 17 members must be female, at least 2 of the members must represent the
disabled and at least 2 members must be Kuchi Nomads, the Kuchis, also called
Kochis, are part of a dominant tribal group within the country.
Thank you for reading this blogpost, next up will be Albania’s government system.
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