Afghanistan's parliament showed its teeth on Saturday by rejecting the majority of President Hamid Karzai's nominees for cabinet posts, state television showed.
Of 24 nominees, only seven were approved in a secret ballot by more than 200 parliamentarians, in a process that appears to have undermined the president's authority.
"Of the 24 nominees introduced to parliament, seven have succeeded in getting your vote of confidence," parliamentary speaker Mohammad Yunus Qanoni said after counting finished.
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The seven ministerial nominees who won approval included those who had been approved by Karzai's supporters in the international community as competent and clean technocrats.
Those rejected included a warlord, Ismail Khan, nominated for the post of water and energy minister, widely seen as a reward for supporting the president during the fraud-tainted August presidential election.
Also rejected, surprisingly, was the only woman nominated to a cabinet post, incumbent women's affairs minister Husn Banu Ghazanfar, who lost out by two votes.
Karzai had been hoping to finalise his cabinet before an international conference in London on January 28 to discuss the future of the country.
The position of foreign minister, the 25th cabinet post, will not be filled until after the conference, which will be attended by the outgoing incumbent, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, parliamentary spokesman Hasib Noori said.
Karzai 'hadn't considered list': Experts
Kabul University law professor Nasrullah Stanikzai said the high number of rejections showed Karzai had not thoroughly considered his list before presenting it to parliament last month.
"The high rate of rejections will have a negative effect on those ministries which are without leadership and policy in the lead-up to the London conference," Stanikzai told AFP.
"On the other hand, the high rate of rejections shows that parliament has risen above internecine considerations that have plagued Afghan politics in the past, such as tribal issues and ethnic divisions."
Ministries without approved ministers would be run by deputy ministers until nominees were approved, he said.
Approved were defence, agriculture, interior, finance, education, culture, and mines and industries.
Karzai now short on time to present new list
Under the constitution, rejected nominees cannot be put forward again for the same post, parliamentary spokesman Noori said, adding parliament will begin its 45-day winter recess on January 5, leaving little or no time for Karzai to present a fresh list.
Karzai's choices were seen as the first test of his commitment to building a clean and accountable government, and eradicating the corruption that blights Afghanistan and helps fuel a Taliban insurgency.
Western leaders have made it clear the billions of dollars in military and development assistance that pour into Afghanistan now depend on concrete action against corruption.
Karzai's cabinet choices appeared to reflect the need to please his Western backers, while at the same time giving a nod to a sector of his domestic supporters regarded as odious to Washington, London and other NATO capitals.
Two warlords miss out
The most notorious warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqiq - leaders of two minority ethnic groups who supported Karzai in the election and were expected to be rewarded with high office - were not nominated.
The international community deploys 113,000 troops to fight an increasingly bloody Taliban-led insurgency.
Up to 40,000 more troops are due to arrive over the course of 2010, backed by thousands of civilians, as the war strategy turns from battleground tactics to development and aid.
Separately, Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) confirmed Saturday that parliamentary elections will take place on May 22.
Commenting on reports the polls could be delayed because of fraud problems that plagued the presidential election, the IEC said security, budget and timing requirements had been met with the help of the international community.
In the latest violence, five civilians were killed and six wounded when their pick-up truck detonated an improvised explosive device in the southwest of the country, the governor of Nimroz province told AFP.
