page_title: Kabul Province
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Kabul Province / Politics
caption_attribution_description: English: The new building of the Afghan Parliament in the grounds of the Darul Aman Palace
context_page_description: Kābul, situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is also Afghanistan's capital and largest city. The population of the Kabul Province is over 5 million people as of 2020, of which over 85 percent live in urban areas. The current governor of the province is Muhammad Yaqub Haidari.
  It borders the provinces of Parwan to the north, Kapisa to the north-east, Laghman to the east, Nangarhar to the south-east, Logar to the south, and Wardak to the west.
context_section_description: Kabul was occupied by a number of mujahideen rebel groups and warlords before Najibullah's government collapsed in 1992. The city and province were contested by the various rebel forces who fought for power until it was captured by the Taliban in 1996. A new strict law was introduced by the Taliban. There was very little information on how Afghanistan was governed but the country had only one leader, Mullah Omar, the head of Taliban who fled to Pakistan after the US-led invasion on October 7, 2001. The Taliban laws were quickly abolished and humanities came in effect to enable Kabul to recover from the destruction caused by the mujahideen and Taliban forces. The 2002 loya jirga took place to solve the country's political problems.
  Afghanistan adopted a new constitution in January 2004, establishing the country as an Islamic Republic. According to the constitution, the Afghan government consists of a President, two Vice Presidents, and a National Assembly (Parliament). The National Assembly has two houses: the House of People (Wolesi Jirga), and the House of Elders (Meshrano Jirga). There is also an independent Judiciary branch consisting of the Supreme Court (Stara Mahkama), High Courts and Appeal Courts. The President appoints the members of the Supreme Court with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga.
  Afghanistan's presidential elections were held in October 2004. Over 8 million Afghans voted in the elections. The Joint Electoral Management Body of Afghanistan certified the elections and declared Hamid Karzai, the interim President, the winner with 55.4% of the vote. Karzai's strongest opponent, Yunus Qanuni, received 16.3% of the vote. The elections were not without controversy; allegations of fraud and ballot stuffing were brought up by many of the presidential candidates including Qanuni. A panel of international experts was set up to investigate the matter. The panel did find evidence of voting irregularities, however, they said that it was not enough to affect the outcome of the elections.
caption: The Afghan Parliament
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