Afghan parliament rejects Karzai's cabinet
Two thirds of Hamid Karzai's cabinet is rejected by the Afghan parliament
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Afghan president Hamid Karzai's authority received a severe setback at the weekend with the news the country's parliament had rejected two-thirds of those he hoped would make up his new cabinet.
Mr Karzai's list of nominees was seen as a compromise between appeasing the international community and the warlords, both of whom have been involved in providing support for Afghanistan, as well as those he promised to find jobs for if they voted for him in August's controversial presidential elections.
The only woman standing for a cabinet post, the present women's affairs minister Husn Banu Ghazanfar, was voted out by two votes. A warlord running for water and energy minister, Ismail Khan, was also among the 16 people rejected by lawmakers in the Afghan parliament.
Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Yunus Qanoni announced the result of the ballot to Mr Karzai: "Of the 24 nominees introduced to parliament, seven have succeeded in getting your vote of confidence".
Mr Karzai's choice of nominees was seen by his western supporters as a sign that he was trying to resist the corruption that permeates Afghanistan.
According to the Times, a western diplomat said that the parliament's reaction to the cabinet was due to the president ignoring, or "slapping them in the face" in the past.
Those accepted into the cabinet are mostly respected as honest and competent individuals by the west.
They include Mr Karzai's nominees for agriculture, culture, defence, education, interior, finance, and mines and industries.
Mr Karzai had been hoping to have his cabinet organised by January 28th, the date of an international conference in London concerning Afghanistan's future. However, the post of foreign minister will not be named until after the summit.
Kabul University law professor Nasrullah Stanikzai sees positives and negatives with regard to the parliament's decisions: "The high rate of rejections will have a negative effect on those ministries which are without leadership and policy in the lead-up to the London conference.
"On the other hand, the high rate of rejections shows that parliament has risen above internecine considerations that have plagued Afghan politics in the past, such as tribal issues and ethnic divisions."
The head of the United Nations in Kabul, Kai Eide, admitted he was "surprised" at how many of the cabinet nominees were rejected, adding: "It prolongs the situation without a functioning government."
The president's spokesman Waheed Omar also commented: "This is obviously not good in terms of the functioning of the government, in terms of services."
He was adamant that the ministries would continue to run, adding: "This is the beauty of democracy. We are exercising democracy."
The rejected nominees cannot be put forward again for the same position.