KABUL (SW) – The latest spell of fistfight between members of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) and guards at the house left five people injured on Monday.
A member of the house, Abdul Rauf Inami, told Salam Watandar the newly elected speaker, Mir Rehman Rehmani, had told the secretariat administrators not to hold the session today without taking the MPs into confidence. He said this move angered the parliamentarians.
Another member of the house, Abdul Qadir Qalatwal, said in this regard that the a candidate for the speaker’s seat has begun campaign for re-election in the house, and has so far got the signatures of up to 120 MPs including those who previously backed Rehmani.
Other MPs said they are striving to put in place an interim head of the house until fresh polls are held for the speaker’s seat.
The problems began last week when interim speaker, Atta Mohammad Dehqanpur, declared Rehmani as the new speaker with 123 votes in his favor. However, some MPs did not allow him to secure the speaker’s seat claiming he has failed to win the required fifty-percent-plus votes in the house with 247 members present.
A 15-member committee is busy in consultations for the resolution of this conflict. Some members said today they would not accept the decision of this committee.
ENDS
