Introduction

From December 2001 to December 2005, Afghanistan underwent a process of political transition. The path to be followed was established at a conference in Bonn from 27 November to 5 December 2001 under the auspices of the United Nations which brought together ‘non-Taliban’ Afghan political actors. The conference led to the signing of an ‘Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-establishment of Permanent Government Institutions’, which was subsequently endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1383 (2001). A number of key landmarks on this pathway formed essential elements of the transition. On 22 December 2001, an interim authority took office at a ceremony in Kabul, headed by Hamed Karzai and comprising a chairman, five vice chairmen and twenty-four other members. From 11 to 19 June 2002, a so-called ‘Emergency Loya Jirga’ (Great Assembly) was held to transform the interim authority into a more broadly based transitional administration. In order to equip Afghanistan with a new constitution, a ‘Constitutional Loya Jirga’ was held between 14 December 2003 and 4 January 2004 with 502 members, most of them elected through an indirect but lively process, but some appointed by Karzai, which led to the adoption of the new constitution (Qanun-e Asasi-i Afghanistan). Following this, a presidential election was held on 9 October 2004 which resulted in the election of Karzai as president for a five-year term with 55.4 per cent of the popular vote; and on 18 September 2005, further elections were held for provincial councils and for the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of a new bicameral Parliament, which met for the first time on 19 December 2005, almost four years to the day since the interim authority had been constituted.