Plan for a Strong Presidency Catches On

Supporters of a strong presidency appear to be winning the argument in Afghanistan’s constitutional convention, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Saturday.

One of the main issues facing the loya jirga, or grand assembly, as it debates a draft constitution is whether a directly elected president should share power with a prime minister chosen by parliament.

Khalilzad said debate over whether to have a stronger parliamentary system appeared to be fading, with support growing for the proposal for a president who would work with a two-chamber parliament without a prime minister.

“Of course, it’s not all settled until the constitution is decided on, and that won’t happen until we know what the final document says,” Khalilzad told reporters.

“But at this stage, it looks like there is a preference for a presidential system.”

The U.S. and its key Afghan ally, interim President Hamid Karzai, want a strong presidential system; they say giving more power to the central government would make it easier to piece Afghanistan back together after more than 24 years of war.

But opponents have argued that a country with so many competing ethnic and political interests needs to spread out government authority to make disputes over concentrated power less likely.

Mohammed Azam Dadfar, a deputy chairman of the assembly, said long tea breaks and Friday prayers on the Muslim holy day -- not serious disputes -- have delayed discussions slightly. But he insisted that the delegates were making good progress.

“We haven’t done or said anything about any deadline, and we don’t put pressure on the delegates,” Dadfar said Saturday. “But what we told them was that they should not have breaks, like a tea break or any other useless breaks, and they agreed.”

Committee discussions may end as early as today, allowing any proposed amendments to go to a reconciliation committee set up to resolve differences, Dadfar said.

Ambassador Khalilzad said he wasn’t sure how close the delegates were to finishing their work. “So far, things have been moving reasonably well,” he said. “Difficult issues and situations have been managed relatively well. And there must be a sense of satisfaction, I think, in terms of what has happened so far.

“But, of course, there is a long way to go, so I don’t want to declare that everything is finished and it’s been a successful process. Until now, it has, and I’m hopeful that it will turn out that way.”

As one sign of progress, he cited the changing situation of delegate Malalai Joya. She was ejected from the assembly tent Wednesday, and given U.N. protection, for denouncing powerful militia leaders as criminals. Now she is a rapporteur, or official recorder, of the debate for one committee, Khalilzad said.

The assembly’s 502 delegates, who convened in Kabul, the capital, a week ago, are debating in 10 committees, or working groups. The groups can propose amendments, which will be passed on to the reconciliation committee, before the draft constitution is put to a final vote.

Organizers have barred reporters from covering the committees’ discussions, leaving most Afghans largely in the dark about what is happening in a historic debate that is a crucial step toward the country’s first democratic elections.

The national polls are planned for June, but fighting and attacks on civilians in parts of the country have slowed a United Nations voter registration campaign, raising doubts that the elections will be held on time.

Khalilzad said an effort to strengthen parliament’s powers to dismiss a future president was strongly defeated in a committee headed by Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a hard-line Islamist with influence over the warlords.

The balance of power between Kabul and the provinces is also under debate, and Khalilzad said the assembly appeared to be leaning toward giving the president the power to appoint provincial governors.

“But that is still an issue,” he said.

Women are pressing to have constitutionally guaranteed rights explicitly apply to both men and women, not simply Afghan citizens as the current text says.

Strengthening the language on women’s rights would be good, Khalilzad said.

“But my sense is that at a minimum it will stay as it is,” he added. “It might get better.”

Dadfar and another assembly deputy chairman, Safia Siddiqi, said that thus far, no amendments, beyond corrections to spelling and grammar, have been proposed to the draft constitution published in early November.

The closed debate, and the apparent ease with which the opposition’s publicly stated objections are being neutralized, feeds the suspicion among many Afghans that their constitution will be the product of secret deals with warlords.

Khalilzad denied that.

“We have not bought off anyone,” the U.S. ambassador said. “We have talked with a lot of people.”