House of the People (Afghanistan)

The House of Representatives of the People, or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga (Pashto: دَ افغانستان ولسي جرګه), was the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, alongside the upper House of Elders.

House of the People

ولسی جرگه

Wolesi Jirga
Type
Type
History
Founded1931[1]
Disbanded15 August 2021
Structure
Seats250
Length of term
5 years
Meeting place
Kabul
Website
wj.parliament.af (dead)
(16 August 2021 archive)

The House of Representatives of the People was the chamber that bore the greater burden of lawmaking in the country, as with the House of Commons in the Westminster model. It consisted of 250 delegates directly elected by single non-transferable vote.[2] Members were elected by district and served for five years. The constitution guaranteed at least 68 delegates to be female. Kuchi nomads elect 10 representatives through a Single National Constituency.

The House of Representatives of the People[3] had the primary responsibility for making and ratifying laws and approving the actions of the president. The first elections in decades were held in September 2005, four years after the fall of the Taliban regime, still under international (mainly UN and NATO) supervision.

The 2010 Wolesi Jirga election was held on 18 September 2010 [4][5] and the 2018 Wolesi Jirga election was held on 20 October 2018 after almost three years of delay[6][7] The new Parliament was later inaugurated on 26 April 2019.[8]

It was effectively dissolved when the Taliban seized power on 15 August 2021.[9] The Taliban did not include the House of the People and several other agencies of the former government in its first national budget in May 2022. Government spokesman Innamullah Samangani said that due to the financial crisis, only active agencies were included in the budget, and the excluded ones had been dissolved, but noted they could be brought back "if needed".[10]

Elections
Main article: Elections in Afghanistan

Elections were last held on 20 October 2018. Originally, they had been scheduled for 15 October 2016,[11] but were initially postponed to 7 July 2018,[12] and then again to 20 October.[13] The last Parliament was later sworn in by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on 26 April 2019.[14] The last Parliament was also Afghanistan 17th Parliament.[14] The same day final results from four Afghanistan provinces revealed, among other things, that House of the People former speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi of Kunduz had been re-elected to the House of the People as well.[15]

Speakers

Speakers of the Wolesi Jirga since establishment of Parliamentary institutions in 1931.

Name Entered office Left office Notes
Abdul Ahad Wardak 1931 1933 [1]
Abdul Ahad Wardak 1934 1936 [1]
Abdul Ahad Wardak 1937 1939 [1]
Abdul Ahad Wardak 1940 1942 [1]
Abdul Ahad Wardak 1943 1945 [1]
Sultan Ahmad Khan 1946 1948 [1]
Abdul Hadi Dawi 1949 1951 [1]
Abdul Rasheed Khan 1952 1954 [1]
Mohammad Nawroz Khan 1955 1957 [1]
Mohammad Nawroz Khan 1958 1960 [1]
Abdul Zahir 1961 1964 [1]
Abdul Zahir 1965 1968 [1]
Mohammad Omer Wardak 1969 1972 [1]
Dissolved 1973 1988
Khalil Abawi 1988 1992 [16][17]
Not functioning 1992 2005
Yunus Qanuni 2005 2010
Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi 2011 2019 [18]
Mir Rahman Rahmani 2019 2021

Representation
Main article: Women in the Parliament of Afghanistan

See also

References
  1. "A glance of the History of Assemblies of Afghanistan" (PDF). Wolesi Yirga. 25 January 2019.
  2. "Fact Sheet: Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV) System" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2005.
  3. "This Afghan MP Has Been In Hot Water Before, But Trashing A Pastry Shop Takes The Cake". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  4. "Afghans brave Taliban to vote in parliamentary election". BBC News Online. 18 September 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  5. "March 25, 2010: IEC Press Release on 2010 Wolesi Jirga Election Timeline" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2010.
  6. "Afghans defy deadly poll violence". BBC News. 21 October 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  7. "Press Release of the IEC Change of Election date". iec.org.af. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  8. "Ghani Inaugurates Afghanistan's Parliament | TOLOnews". Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  9. Ziar Khan Yaad (14 September 2021). "Fate of Afghanistan's National Assembly Unclear". TOLOnews. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  10. Eqbal, Saqalain (17 May 2022). "The Taliban Dissolves the Human Rights Commission and Five Other Key Departments, Declaring them "Unnecessary"". The Khaama Press Agency. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  11. Mashal, Mujib (18 January 2016). "Afghan Panel Sets Election Date, Drawing Government Criticism". The New York Times.
  12. "International News: Latest Headlines, Video and Photographs from Around the World – People, Places, Crisis, Conflict, Culture, Change, Analysis and Trends". ABC News. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  13. "Afghanistan Sets Date for Parliamentary and District Elections After 3-Year Security Delay". 1 April 2018.
  14. "17th legislative term of Afghan Parliament inaugurated". www.aninews.in.
  15. "Final election results announced for Wardak, Kunduz, Baghlan, Nomads constituency". The Khaama Press News Agency. 26 April 2019.
  16. "Central Asia". Area Study Centre (Central Asia), University of Peshawar. 19 February 1996 – via Google Books.
  17. https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/iaf/article/download/105/100
  18. http://wolesi.website/pve/showdoc.aspx?Id=1096
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