2002 loya jirga

An emergency "loya jirga" (Pashto for "grand assembly") was held in Kabul, Afghanistan between 11 and 19 June 2002 to elect a transitional administration. The loya jirga was called for by the Bonn Agreement. The agreement (designed by Afghan leaders) was drawn up in December 2001 in Germany. Conducted under United Nations auspices, the talks at Bonn sought a solution to the problem of government in Afghanistan after the US ousted the Taliban government.

Then-UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, announced the composition of the Commission in charge of the loya jirga on 21 January 2002; it was to be chaired by Ismail Qasimyar, a legal and constitutional expert. One of his two deputies was Mahboba Hoqomal, a female lecturer in political science. The commission decided that the Loya Jirga would be open for 1450, of which 1051 would be chosen by an indirect elections. Each district elected 20 people, who then held a secret vote to select one person to represent the whole district. Each of the country's 362 districts had at least one seat, with further seats allotted for every 22,000 people. The commission would reserve another 100 seats for refugees, 25 for nomads, 53 seats for members of the interim administration and the commission and 160 seats for women. It was the first time in the history of Afghanistan that women attended a loya jirga. In May, concern was being expressed that the armed factions in several provinces were influencing the selection of the members of the Loya Jirga and the Commission had received numerous complaints of intimidation and also of violence.

The Loya Jirga meets in a giant, air-conditioned and carpeted tent at the Polytechnic University campus in Kabul. Some 2,000 delegates, 500 more than the number invited, arrived at the beginning of June. These included 50 additional delegates to satisfy the demands of various warlords.

The most important thing the Loya Jirga had to do was to choose a president for the Afghan Transitional Administration who would lead the country until the official presidential elections in 2004. At the beginning, there were two candidates who had declared to run: former president of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani and the US-backed chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai. Karzai was also supported by Abdullah Abdullah and Mohammad Fahim, two important leaders of the Northern Alliance. A third possible candidate was Zahir Shah, former king of Afghanistan until 1973. He had spent years living in Rome but had returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime. Already at the Bonn Conference which installed the interim administration there was a group of supporters of Zahir Shah, called the Rome-group, who wanted to take the former king to take up the position of head of state.

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Wikipedia