KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of Parliament is expected to announce a decision about the dispute over its speaker’s election house today after the assessment of a delegation.
Some members of the house on Tuesday said the 27-member delegation tasked with resolving the dispute over the speaker’s election would announce its decision yesterday.
On last 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 ballot 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.
After two days of tussle among lawmakers, the lower house assigned a 27-member delegation, including 10 members of an earlier delegation, to resolve the dispute.
Some lawmakers and the delegation on Wednesday said their assessment showed one vote used on the election day for Rahmani was written with the number (2) on it in front of Rahmani’s photo on the ballot paper but it actually meant (right) and the vote should be used in favor of Rahmani.
On the other hand, a number of members of the delegation and supporters of Osuli left the session as statements were made in favor of Rahmani.
Ghulam Hussain Naseri, a member of the delegation, said that their assessment showed all lawmakers who were present on Thursday had used their votes on the election day for the two candidates.
However, he said another review of the issue showed Rahmani had received a total of 124 votes including the one vote that was declared invalid while Osuli received 55 votes on the voting day.
He said 54 votes on the speaker election day were declared invalid, 13 blank and a totally of 246 votes were polled by 247 lawmakers present.
Naseri said a vote previously counted as invalid was later counted valid for Rahmani considering the vote signing method was used in the past. By this calculation, Rahmani won majority of votes from lawmakers, he said.
Abdul Qayum Sajjadi, a member of the delegation, concluded that the Wolesi Jirga would make a decision regarding the matter today, Thursday. (Pajhwok)