A15-member parliamentary committee has been formed to resolve the controversy over the Wolesi Jirga or lower house of Parliament speaker’s election.
On Thursday, lawmakers Mir Rahman Rahmani, Mirwais Yasini, Kamal Naser Osuli and Omar Nasir contested for the speaker post.
However, none could bag enough votes to become speaker of the house and the balloting went to a second round, which was deferred to Sunday.
Mir Rahman and Osuli, who received the highest numbers of votes on Thursday, were in the run for the slot in the second round of voting.
Atta Mohammad Dehqanpor, provisional speaker, said there were 247 lawmakers present in the house and a candidate was required to collect 124 votes to win the seat.
Based on results announced after the voting, Rahmani received 123 votes (one vote short of the threshold) and Osuli 55. None was declared a winner as 53 votes were counted invalid and 13 were found blank.
Some MPs claimed Rahmani had met the 50-plus one vote threshold and was a winner but others said a winner must receive 50 percent plus one vote from the lawmakers present. The dispute divided lawmakers into two groups after Osuli rejected the result.
A lawmaker, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News that female legislators did not allow Rahmani and Osuli to hold the speaker office.
The source said the speaker’s seat was broken due to the dispute between lawmakers who supported Rahmani and those who opposed him.
Then a 15-member committee was created to settle the problem. Five lawmakers would represent Osuli and five Rahmani while five others would be neutral in the committee, the lawmaker said.
“All the legislators should accept whatever the committee decides,” the source said.
The committee’s work did not yield any result on Sunday; therefore, they decided to announce their decision on Monday.
On the other hand, 33 lawmakers form the western part of the country said the issue should be addressed through legal sources.
