The Government of – Afghanistan

Featured Image:
Afghanistan Map Picture made by Sommerkom (Wikipedia). Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bysa/3.0/deed.en – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghanistan_physical_en.png (The Afghan flag I edited in on its corner is not owned by the individual and is in the public domain and free to use).  

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

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

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^nd 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 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 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.  

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

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^nd round, although in some cases, a 2^nd round does not happen if one of the candidates gets more than 50% of the vote in the 1^st 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, 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.  

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Thank you for reading this blogpost, next up will be Albania’s government system.  

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