Mashrano Jirga, the upper house of Afghan parliament, on Sunday delayed its summer recess in order to approve the half-year’s budget, including the budget for presidential election.
According to Article 107th of Constitution, the Parliament shall hold two regular sessions annually.
The term of both regular sessions shall be nine months every year, and when needed, the assembly shall extend its term. Extraordinary sessions of the parliament during recess shall be convened by Presidential order.
Upper house chairman Fazl Hadi Muslimar told yesterday’s session that based on a presidential order, they should delay the summer vacation.
He quoted the president as terming the September 28th presidential election a serious matter. He said the international community had failed to pay the budget for election so far.
“Therefore, we have to wait for few days until the budget document arrives in the assembly as the presidential election budget is also included the middle-year budget,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, some Mashrano Jirga members verified they would take their summer break after the fate of the budget was determined.
Wolesi Jirga approves budget after it is confirmed by Mashrano Jirga.
Erfanullah Erfan, deputy secretary of the Wolesi Jirga, said no request had been made by upper house members but some members were interested in delay of the vacation.
He added the Wolesi Jirga might not also enjoy all the summer recess and would reduce the recess period to advance the house affairs.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has demanded $146 million from the Afghan government and international community for holding the presidential poll.
On Wednesday, IEC head Hawa Alam Nuristani called on the government and international community to provide the required budget for the upcoming presidential elections.
But the Ministry of Finance announced it would pay the budget and said a small amount of money would be transferred to the IEC for initial work and the rest would be transferred to the commission after finalization of the budget plan.
According to a report, MoF officials said the total of 11.3 billion Afghanis had been demanded by the IEC for the presidential elections – 6.9 billion of which will be paid by Afghan government and 4.4 billion other by donor institutions.
However, no donor has so far approached the government for supporting the upcoming elections.
