House of the People (Afghanistan)

The House of Representatives of the People or Da Afghanistan Wolesi Jirga in Farsi, Turkic and Pashto: دَ افغانستان ولسي جرګه‎), is the lower house of the bicameral National Assembly of Afghanistan, alongside the upper House of Elders.

House of the People

ولسی جرگه

Wolesi Jirga
16th House of the People of Afghanistan
Type
Type
History
Founded1931[1]
Leadership
Chairperson (Rais)
Mir Rahman Rahmani
since 29 June 2019
First Vice-Chairperson (Naib-e-Awal)
Amir Khan Yar
since 2 July 2019
Second Vice-Chairperson (Naib-e-Doum)
Ahmad Shah Ramazan
since 2 July 2019
Secretary (Munshi)
Mirdad Khan Nejrabi
since 2 July 2019
Assistant Secretary (Naib-e-Munshi)
Irfanullah Irfan
since 2 July 2019
Structure
Seats250
Length of term
5 years
Elections
Last election
2018 Afghan parliamentary election
Next election
2023 Afghan parliamentary election
Meeting place
Kabul
Website
wj.parliament.af
Afghanistan
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The House of Representatives of the People is the chamber that bears the greater burden of lawmaking in the country, as with the House of Commons in the Westminster model. It consists of 250 delegates directly elected by single non-transferable vote.[2] Members are elected by district and serve for five years. The constitution guarantees 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] has 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 September 18, 2010 [4][5] and the 2018 Wolesi Jirga election was held on October 20, 2018 after almost three years of delay[6][7] The new Parliament was later inaugurated on April 26, 2019.[8]

Elections
Main article: Elections in Afghanistan

Elections were last held on October 20, 2018. Originally, they had been scheduled for 15 October 2016,[9] but were initially postponed to 7 July 2018,[10] and then again to 20 October.[11] The current Parliament was later sworn in by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on April 26, 2019.[12] The current Parliament is also Afghanistan 17th Parliament.[12] 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.[13]

Chairpersons of the Administrative Boards

Chairpersons of the Administrative Boards 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 31 May 1988 1992 [14][15]
Not functioning 1992 2005
Yunus Qanuni 7 December 2005 6 December 2010
Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi 27 February 2011 20 May 2019 [16]
Mir Rahman Rahmani 29 June 2019 Incumbent

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 2005-10-27.
  3. "This Afghan MP Has Been In Hot Water Before, But Trashing A Pastry Shop Takes The Cake". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  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 April 7, 2010.
  6. "Afghans defy deadly poll violence". BBC News. 2018-10-21. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  7. "Press Release of the IEC Change of Election date". iec.org.af. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  8. http://prod.tolonews.com/afghanistan/ghani-inaugurates-parliament
  9. Mashal, Mujib (2016-01-18). "Afghan Panel Sets Election Date, Drawing Government Criticism". The New York Times.
  10. News, ABC. "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 2017-07-06. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
  11. "Afghanistan Sets Date for Parliamentary and District Elections After 3-Year Security Delay". 1 April 2018.
  12. "17th legislative term of Afghan Parliament inaugurated". www.aninews.in.
  13. "Final election results announced for Wardak, Kunduz, Baghlan, Nomads constituency". April 26, 2019.
  14. "Central Asia". Area Study Centre (Central Asia), University of Peshawar. February 19, 1996 – via Google Books.
  15. https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/iaf/article/download/105/100
  16. http://wolesi.website/pve/showdoc.aspx?Id=1096
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