Revolt at Afghan Convention Fails

President Hamid Karzai scored an important victory Sunday in his fight for a strong presidency by defeating a delegate revolt on the opening day of this nation’s historic constitutional convention.

Supporters of broad power-sharing in a parliamentary system, which Karzai opposes, failed to elect one of their leaders as chairman of the loya jirga, or traditional grand assembly, which is debating a draft constitution.

Instead, Karzai ally and former Afghan President Sibghatullah Mojaddidi won the chairman’s seat, which should help the U.S.-backed Afghan leader beat back opponents of a powerful presidential system.

But the sometimes angry debate on the first day of the loya jirga suggests it will be more contentious than one last year that named Karzai interim president.

Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, chief editor of Voice of the Holy Warriors newspaper, led the unsuccessful challenge to Karzai and his supporters, and argued that the Afghan leader was imposing illegal procedures on the assembly to make sure he wins the debate.

Mansoor and other delegates said that 50 delegates appointed by Karzai should not be allowed to vote and that the 502-member assembly should debate the constitution instead of breaking up into 10 groups, as he said Karzai has ordered.

“The loya jirga is the greatest and biggest assembly in Afghanistan, and the present government is a child of the loya jirga,” said Mansoor, a member of the powerful Jamiat-i-Islami faction. “This government cannot make procedures for its father. And that’s why the procedures issued by government are illegal.”

Delegates are debating what would be Afghanistan’s sixth constitution since 1922. The current constitution was ratified by a loya jirga in 1989, when a Communist government was fighting to hold on to power as Soviet troops withdrew in defeat after a 10-year war with moujahedeen guerrillas.

Karzai has warned that he won’t run for his office in June in the absence of a strong presidential system. His opponents want power more evenly shared with a prime minister and parliament.

Critics at home and abroad have called the draft that Karzai is pushing a formula for dictatorship. But he told delegates the constitution is exactly what citizens want.

“The main point of this constitution is to give people freedom, to give their rights to them,” Karzai said. “For the first time, Afghans will all have the chance to elect their own president, and a president elected by the people would be the most trusted person in the country.”

Mojaddidi began a brief term as Afghan president in 1992 at the start of a factional war that helped the Taliban seize power in 1996. He won the chairmanship Sunday after addressing the assembly for less than a minute, saying he needn’t list his accomplishments and was simply asking delegates to trust him.

When the 489 ballots cast were counted, in front of the assembly under United Nations supervision, Mojaddidi had 251 votes to Mansoor’s 154. The remaining ballots went to two other contenders or were spoiled.

Before the convention began, it was marred by allegations of intimidation and vote buying. Many Afghans say they suspect a deal has been worked out to ensure Karzai’s preferred version of the constitution is ratified, a charge the president has denied.

Karzai’s opponents in turn deny charges that they have tried to bribe their way to victory.

Before Karzai’s hourlong address, a choir of kindergarten children in traditional dress of Afghanistan’s various ethnic groups brought tears to the eyes of several delegates.

“My country, you are broken waiting for your sons,” they sang in Dari, an Afghan variant of the Persian language. “My country, you are like a tree whose fruits are all disloyal to you. My country, you are tired of fighting and disloyalty without song and sound.

“My country, sick without medicine. My country, who has destroyed your dreams?”

Hours later, as delegates bickered, Mansoor picked up the children’s theme to defend his demand for a parliamentary system to guard against presidents getting too much power.

“The children who sang the song at the beginning said Afghanistan is tired,” he said. “Why? I’ll tell you: Afghanistan is tired because each and every government wants to make a constitution for itself, not for the people.”

Other delegates accused Karzai’s opponents of trying to undercut progress the country is making after more than two decades of warfare. “If you have come here to make chaos and disorganize us all, then just leave the tent,” one delegate said.

Karzai devoted much of his address to a catalog of what he sees as his government’s achievements, saying the economy is stronger and the central bank has money in the vault for the first time in years. Delegates laughed when he said the bank governor had asked him not to say it was in such good shape for fear that foreign governments would be tempted to cut off aid.

U.S. and Afghan forces are mounting a security operation to allow Karzai to celebrate Tuesday the early completion of one of the country’s most important reconstruction projects: the first phase of rebuilding the Kabul-to-Kandahar highway.

The 300-mile highway, which links the capital to the former Taliban regime’s strongest base of support, was largely rebuilt with $190 million in U.S. aid. Troops will close down the highway to allow Karzai to officially open it in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The U.S. has spent $1.7 billion in Afghanistan over the last two years, and Congress recently appropriated an additional $1.2 billion to speed up reconstruction efforts.

Taliban guerrillas and their allies have increased attacks on the Kabul-Kandahar highway and surrounding areas in recent months, including the slaying of a U.N. worker from France and the kidnapping of Turkish and Indian road engineers. But Karzai insisted Sunday that the Taliban is losing the war.

“The terrorists are against reconstruction in Afghanistan,” he said. “That’s why they are kidnapping aid workers, killing aid workers. But they don’t know that this nation will never be destroyed again. The people of this country will not leave the country again. The people of this country will succeed.”