page_title: Presidency of Hamid Karzai
section_title: Second term as President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2009-2014
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Hamid Karzai / Second term as President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2009-2014
caption_attribution_description: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (June 13, 2010) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai attends a shura with hundreds of tribal and religious leaders in Kandahar, the core area of Taliban insurgency. The gathering highlighted the need for support of NATO-led forces in order to stabilize parts of the province. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Mark O’Donald/Released)
context_page_description: The Karzai administration was the government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai, who became the head of state of Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban government was overthrown. Karzai was appointed at the 2002 Loya Jirga as the Interim President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. After the 2004 Afghan presidential election, he became the President of Afghanistan.
context_section_description: The beginning of the second term of Karzai was marked by his problems with forming 
  a new cabinet approved by the parliament (see above), the International Afghanistan Conference in London on 28 January 2010, the announcement to hold a "Peace Jirga", the Operation Moshtarak in Southern Afghanistan in February 2010, the International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul in July 2010, and the spread of the Taliban insurgency to the northern provinces of the country.
  On 15 February 2010, the American newspaper Washington Post published an obtained draft of changes to the Afghan election law that was presented at a cabinet meeting earlier that month. This thorough rewriting of the current law dating from 2005 proposed to remove all three foreign members from the Electoral Complaints Commission: one member would be chosen by the Supreme Court, two by the parliament, one by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and one by the president.
  In the presidential elections of 2009, the five-member ECC—including three international members appointed by the U.N. envoy to Afghanistan – calculated that Karzai lost his first-round majority by the amount of vote-rigging and would need to face a run-off. The proposal would also limit the fixed number of women in Wolesi Jirga (Lower House) to a maximum of two per each of the country's 34 provinces. Further the proposal intended to establish restrictive qualifications for presidential candidates: they should have a bachelor's degree and a "good reputation" and be a "wise and brave person" and not been "affected by psychic diseases." Presidential candidates would also have to deposit a bail of 5 million Afghanis (about $100,000), to be refunded only if the candidate wins or receives at least 20 percent of the vote (of the 32 candidates listed by the election commission in 2009, only two cleared this threshold). Karzai's spokesman Wahid Omar said that amendments were approved by the cabinet and sent to the Ministry of Justice. Karzai could sign a decree on the changes while the parliament had its winter recess.
  In March 2010 the president’s office admitted that it had entered into force without Karzai's signature the National Reconciliation Charter that the Afghan parliament passed in 2007, granting immunity from prosecution to combatants in past conflicts since the Soviet's invasion in 1979 ([in 2005, Human Rights Watch documented one particularly grisly period in 1992–93 in its report "Blood Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity"). This law was not signed off by him because of the many objections that were raised by domestic and international rights groups. The resolution which was passed earlier by the lower house of Parliament, Wolesi Jirga, on 31 January 2007 provided impunity to the war criminals including Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
  In September 2012, Karzai fired and hired 10 provincial governors in an attempt to improve governance and stop corruption on the local level. This came weeks after he replaced Afghan security officials to take better control of state machinery and key ministries. One of the fired governors was Mohammad Gulab Mangal, who was in charge of the Taliban-filled Helmand Province and had both American and British support. Afghan's international supporters have previously requested improvements in the local administrations.
  Karzai's second term as President ended on 29 September 2014. He was succeeded by Ashraf Ghani.
caption: Karzai speaking at a shura to tribal and religious leaders in Kandahar, the core area of Taliban insurgency.
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