Election for the new speaker of Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of Afghan Parliament, sparked controversy as the interim speaker declared Mir Rahman Rahmani as winner without him securing the necessary 50+1 votes from his fellow parliament members.
The second round of election for the chairmanship was held on Saturday after parliamentarians failed last week to choose the speaker in the first round. The poll went to a run-off between the frontrunners Kamal Naser Osuli, representing south eastern Khost, and Mir Rahman Rahmani from central Parwan province. The interim speaker of the house, Atta Mohmmad Dehqanpur, said before the counting of the votes that 247 MPs were present and the winning candidate should secure at least 124 votes. The tally showed that Rahmani won 123 votes, just a single vote short of the 50+1 standard and the other contender Osuli got 55 votes. 53 votes were invalid and 13 MPs abstained. The problem arose as all the casted votes were counted for 244, three votes less than the number the interim speaker announced before the counting.
After some discussion, Dehqanpur announced Rahmani as the winner, a decision that met with strong reactions from some MPs. Protesting MPs say that Rahmani did not secure the necessary 50+1 votes so based on the law the election must go to the third round between new contenders.
Mariam Sulemankhail, a Kochi representative, said in a tweet that media has wrongly reported that Mir Rahman Rahmani won the vote,” The media is wrong about who has won- we will be going into the 3nd round.”
She claimed that Rahmani brought armed men into the Wolesi Jirga hall,” It is completely against the law! The temporary speaker favored Rahmani because of financial reasons. We will not allow the Afghan legal system be made a joke! Tomorrow, we will make it clear that Rahmani is not our Speaker!”
In the first round of the voting on May 16, four MPs, including Mir Rahman Rahmani, Kamal Naser Osuli, Mirwais Yasini, and Omar Nasir Mujadadedi contested for the seat of the house speaker, in which Rahmani and Osuli got the highest votes and succeeded to enter the next round.
In the first round, Rahmani got 75 votes, Osuli 69 votes, Yasini 59 and Mujaddedi got seven votes.
