User:Maryamsafi

The problems in Afghanistan's National Assembly or the Parlaiment of Afghanistan

=Description of National Assembly= The parliament of Afghanistan is calling by the name of National Assembly, because it includes the representatives of the people from all over Afghanistan. The parliament of Afghanistan started working on 2005 when the first election held four years after fall of the Taliban regime. "The National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as the highest legislative organ is the manifestation of the will of its people and represents the whole nation. Every member of the National Assembly takes into judgment the general welfare and supreme interests of all people of Afghanistan at the time of casting their vote." Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Article 81)

The context of National Assembly
The National Assembly or Parliament of Afghanistan, as envisaged in the Constitution of Afghanistan, consists of two houses: the Wolesi Jirga (the House of the People) and the Meshrano Jirga (the House of Elders).

The Wolesi Jirga (House of People)
The House of the People or Wolesi Jirga, is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the House of Elders. The Wolesi Jirga consists of 249 delegates directly elected by single non-transferable vote (SNTV). Members are elected by district and serve for five years. The constitution guarantees at least 64 delegates to be female. Each province was given proportionate representation in the Wolesi Jirga according to its population and each member of the Wolesi Jirga will work for a five year term. The House of the People has the primary responsibility for making and ratifying laws and approving the actions of the president. [1.2 ]

The Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders)
The Meshrano Jirga consists of a mixture of appointed and elected members (total 102 members). Sixty-eight members were selected by 34 directly elected Provincial Councils, and 34 were appointed by the President. President Karzai’s appointments were vetted by an independent UN sponsored election board and included 17 women (50 %), as required by the Constitution.

Each provincial council has elected one council member to serve in the Jirga (34 members), also each district council (34 members). Representatives of provincial councils will serve a term of four years, while representatives of district councils will serve a term of three years. [1.3 ]

=The principle problems in National Assembly of Afghanistan=

Elections
Since [2004 elections] have been a watershed in the creation and boosting of democracy in Afghanistan. Ever since, Afghans have opportunity to select their head of state and representatives for the parliament through competitive elections. This democratic system is particularly important milestone for Afghan women to have an opportunity to participate in elections both as candidate and as voter in order to develop a political role in Afghanistan’s society. However, after decade of practicing democracy in Afghanistan, women’s participation in elections is significantly decreasing. Based on a report from [Independent Election Commission (IEC)], only 38% of women voted in election 2009, however, in election 2005 it were 44%. The reasons that women’s participation in elections are decreasing are lack of female staff recruitment in polling station, security is always a gendered issue, proxy voting, polling Centers for women remained closed in many provinces, women’s lack of access to public sphere, women’s lack of access to media, Women face threats and violence during the elections, and low rate of literacy among women and reading ballot papers. Members of parliament are assigning by the votes of people through an overall election but there are many problems existed in the process of election in Afghanistan. Security problem is a serious issue that prohibits an overall election and it is difficult to conduct the election process in all the provinces of Afghanistan due to insecurity. The system of election in Afghanistan is single non-transferable voting system (SNTV) that has its problem in Afghanistan situation. There were fraud and violence happened during the elections that the majority of parliament members are spending big amounts of money to win the elections. Lack of electoral awareness is also a challenge that most of the people in Afghanistan don’t have enough awareness about their rights of voting.

Ethnicity
Ethnical problem or issues related to is a very serious problem into the parliament of Afghanistan. Members of parliament are electing from different ethnic groups and they are representing from a specific ethnic group to which they are related. Members of parliament are the people’s representative into the parliament and they have obligation to work for the people as a nation but most of them are representing from their own ethnic group. In Afghanistan different ethnic groups existed that we can see conflict among these ethnic group through the decades. These ethnic groups had been in fight during the past years and in the parliament as well they are working with each other as enemies not as representatives of the people of Afghanistan. Fighting is usual among the representatives of people into the parliament of Afghanistan and it is because they are not accepting each to work beside each other as a nation. They had been in fight with each other in the past because they are related to different ethnic groups and each of them thinks him/herself better than the other. When it comes to a decision each member of parliament is deciding in according to the benefit of his/her own tribal or ethnic group, not in according to the benefit of Afghan nation.

Political Parties
The majority of parliament members are electing as an independent candidate and coming to the parliament as an independent representative. There are 249 members into the parliament that the majority of them are independent and not related to any political party that make the members act separately from each other. has an important for the parliament to have a good parliament that makes the members take better decision because member of political party is deciding based on idea of all those members of the political party. The government is not supporting political parties in Afghanistan and this can be a reason that we don’t have strong political parties into the parliament and strong political parties are necessary for having a strong parliament. The political party members are known faces among people that for the people it can be very easy to select the best person as their representative. Because the members of parliament are electing independently it is difficult for the people to select the right person to vote because the independent candidates are unknown faces among the people.

=References= 1.1-	Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Article 81) 1.2-	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_People_%28Afghanistan%29 1.3-	http://www.afghanistanembassy.no/afghanistan/government/the-parliament