Kabul, August 24 (NIA): The Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) on Tuesday released a survey, in which 51 percent of the people interviewed had said they want Afghanistan to switch over to the parliamentary system.
The survey had interviewed 34 law experts and Members of Parliament and got 800 responses from the public through a questionnaire sent to ten provinces.
Fifty-one percent of respondents believed that the system should be changed from the Presidential to a parliamentary system, the Kabul media quoted senior researcher Mohammad Amin Ahmadi as saying.
“An absolute majority of responders is in favor of reducing the President’s authorities,” he emphasized.
However, The survey found that 33.1 percent were not at the favor of decreasing the President’s authority.
36 percent of the respondents said that constitutional provisions are being constantly violated. Thirty percent said that the observance is low and 21 percent said that the constitution is being grossly and routinely violated. Only 3 percent said that the constitution is being observed.
11.1 percent people believed that the President should see that the constitution is observed. 30.5 percent said that this could be done better through a Constitution Monitoring Commission and 18.5 percent said that monitoring should be done by the Supreme Court. 34.9 percent respondents said that Constitutional Courts should be set up.
There was a huge demand for local government or grassroots level democracy. The respondents also said that officials at the local level must by chosen by election.
Ex-Foreign Minister Dr. Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said that the majority of the interviewees believe that guaranteeing equal rights at all levels, to all citizens, should be given priority in the constitution. Some do not favor distribution of power on the basis of ethnicity as this will make small ethnic groups second class citizens.
