Afghan parliamentary election, 1969
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All 216 seats to the House of the People |
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From August 29 to September 11, 1969 Afghanistan held its second free parliamentary election since the introduction of the constitution in 1964, with 2,030 candidates standing for the 216 seats of the House of the People and for one-third of the House of Elders. The single-member plurality electoral system was used.
Many conservative local landowners who had shunned the previous elections in 1965 and 1967 campaigned for office and won seats. Since political parties were not legalized in time for the elections, most of the candidates were men of local prominence again chosen for their personal prestige rather than their political views.
Whilst four PDPA members had been elected in the 1965 election, in 1969 only 2 were elected; Babrak Karmal in Kabul, and Hafizullah Amin in Paghman. The Parcham faction of the PDPA, favoured by Karmal, was particularly disappointed with the result, being supportive of gradual moves towards socialism. In the face of the results Parcham resumed their alliance with "progressive" elements in the Afghan ruling elite. Amin had been the only member of the Khalq faction elected to parliament, and his election increased his standing within the group, which opposed the kind of broad collaboration advocated by Parcham.
Islamic revolutionary groups only began formally organizing after the election, and had no representation in the parliament. The parliament did however contain an Islamic conservative bloc.
Other than the dominance of conservative landowners and businessmen, the election also saw the parliament become more ethnically representative, with a far greater number of non-Pashtuns being elected. The election also saw the decline of liberal voices, with most urban liberal losing their seats, and all female delegates losing their seats. Other than Karmal and Amin, there were few leftists in the new parliament, with Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, the former Prime Minister and a vocal democratic-socialist, losing his seat as a result of government interference.
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