The Afghan parliament rejected over half of President Hamid Karzai's second batch of cabinet nominees today, including two out of three women, dealing him a second major political blow in as many weeks.
Several key ministers were confirmed, including for Foreign Affairs, Justice and Counter-Narcotics, but 10 out of 17 candidates were voted down, meaning Mr Karzai is still without confirmed leaders for over a third of his ministries.
Parliament unexpectedly threw out the majority of his first picks in a vote two weeks ago, a move hailed as positive for democracy but a setback for Afghan reconstruction after months of uncertainty caused by last year's fraud-marred presidential poll.
"In introducing the nominees to parliament a second time, Karzai considered the ministers to be competent and professional and when they did not receive a positive result, he regrets that," the president's office said in a statement.
The second round of vetoes will prolong the turmoil at a time when the insurgency is worsening and after a year when record numbers of foreign troops and civilians were killed.
In an embarrassing development, it also emerged on Saturday that the nominee for the ministry of rural development was underage, a government official said. The candidate was 31 years old while under the constitution the minimum age is 35.
Mr Karzai has been under intense pressure from his Western backers, and frustrated Afghans, to choose ministers deemed clean and competent. Those who were approved in the first round of voting were mostly liked by foreign diplomats.
The second round of picks are less well-known but there was widespread unhappiness about the choice of Zarar Ahmad Muqbel, a former Interior Minister who international diplomats lobbied hard to have excluded from earlier cabinets.
Mr Karzai's spokesman has said he has a list of backup candidates to replace any rejected in this round of voting, and a source at one ministry had earlier said he was vetting two other prospective nominees.
But he faces a tight schedule to get them in place before travelling to the London conference, a vital international forum on the future of Afghanistan, on January 28th.
The rejection of two women, out of a record three nominated for the cabinet, was a disappointment to activists and women who had praised Mr Karzai for a bold choice.
Reuters