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Background
Afghanistan is in the midst of an historic
change, which will affect not only the future of Afghans, but
the future of the region as a whole. This change began with
the fall of the Taliban and the adoption of the Bonn Agreement.
Following this, an emergency Grand Assembly (Loya Jirga) was
held in the summer of 2002 to establish a transitional administration.
A Constitutional Grand Assembly was later held and it passed
a constitution on January 3, 2004. At long last, the first election
for a truly representative Afghan government occurred in the
fall of 2004, resulting in the first elected president in Afghanistan
in decades.
The latest step in this change is the adoption
of a new Electoral Law in May 2005. This law paves the way for
the September 18, 2005 elections for the People's Assembly (Wolesi
Jirga - the lower house of the National Assembly), and the Provincial
Councils.
Once the election is over and the Provincial
Councils installed, the President will appoint and the Provincial
Councils will elect members to the upper house of the National
Assembly, the Assembly of Elders (Meshrano Jirga). With the
installation of the Assembly of Elders, the permanent government
of Afghanistan will be more or less complete, ending the period
of transition which began with the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
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