Pajhwok Afghan News
05/09/2005
By Ilyas Wahdat

GARDIZ, May 09, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- Tribal elders in the southeastern province of Paktia complain that their allocated number of five seats for the forthcoming parliamentary elections (Wolesi Jirga ) does not accurately represent the population size of the region.

During a public awareness session organized by the Afghan NGO, Wadan Afghanistan and the United Nations, the elders from tribes of Ahmadzai, Mangal raised their concerns and said they would stage demonstrations if the number of seats was not increased.

Jamal Mangal from Mangal tribe said that Paktia had more than one million people living in it, 97 percent of whom voted for President Hamid Karzai in the October 2004 presidential elections.

Haji Kula Khan from Ahmadzai tribe claimed that Paktia currently has no representatives in central government or in the foreign emissary of Afghanistan.

But the deputy governor of Paktia, Mohammad Nabi Sapai said that they couldn't do anything in response to the complaints raised by the elders, and it was purely an issue to be addressed by central government in Kabul.

According to the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), each province of Afghanistan represents a constituency of the Wolesi Jirga and as such has been allocated at least two seats. The exact number of seats is to be allocated in proportion to the population estimates for each province, which will be provided by the Central Statistics Office to the JEMB.