What sort of democracies are Iraq and Afghanistan?

[Shalmanese]

Hijacks go in GD or the Pit please.

With the Afghani election over and the Iraqi one soon to come, how exactly are the constitutions of these two countries structured? Are they first past the post like the US system? Runoff voting? Is there an electoral college? Any details would be appreciated

[hildea]

From Afghanistan’s constitution:

Article 61 [Direct Election]
(1) The President is elected by receiving more than 50% of the votes cast through free, general, secret, and direct voting.
(2) The presidential term is expired at the first of Jawza of the fifth years after the elections.
(3) Elections for the new president are held within thirty, to sixty days before the end of the presidential term.
(4) If none of the candidates succeeds to receive more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a run-off election shall be held within two weeks.
(5) In this round, only two candidates with the highest number of votes will participate.
(6) In the run-off, the candidate who gets the majority of the votes shall be elected as the President.
(7) In case of death of one of the candidates during the first or second round, after the elections or prior to the announcement of the results of elections, new elections shall be held in accordance with the provisions of law.
(8) The elections for the post of president shall be held under the supervision of the Independent Commission supervising of the Elections.
(9) This Commission shall be established to supervise all elections and referendums in the country, in accordance with the provisions of law.

Article 62 [Qualifications]
(1) Presidential candidates should posses the following qualification:
– Should be citizen of Afghanistan, Muslim and born of Afghan parents, and should not have citizenship of another country.
– On the day of becoming a candidate, his age should not be less than forty years.
– Should not have been convicted of crimes against humanity, criminal act, or deprivation of the civil rights by a court.
(2) No one can be elected as president for more than two terms.
(3) The provision of this article is applied to the Vice Presidents as well.

[Shalmanese]

Interesting, I know that some SE Asian countries do the two elections thing but is it a particularly widespread model? What are the benifits/disadvantages compared to the Commonewealth and US models?

[jjimm]

Should be citizen of Afghanistan, Muslim and born of Afghan parents, and should not have citizenship of another country.

I’m extremely surprised to see that. Was the constitution drawn up during the loya jirgas, or by the coalition? Or maybe it was the only way to placate the general populous/hardliners.

[Liberal]

Here’s the official translation of the Afghan constitution…

http://www.afghansite.com/afghanistan/afghanConstitution.asp

…just so you can compare to the unofficial translation above. (Slow loading.)