page_title: 2002 loya jirga
section_title: Delay
hierarchical_section_title: 2002 loya jirga / Delay
context_page_description: An emergency loya jirga was held in Kabul, Afghanistan between 11 and 19 June 2002 to elect a transitional administration. The loya jirga was called for by the Bonn Agreement and Bush administration. The agreement was drawn up in December 2001 in Germany. Conducted under United Nations auspices, the talks at Bonn sought a solution to the problem of government in Afghanistan after the US ousted the Taliban government.
context_section_description: The loya jirga met in a large, air-conditioned and carpeted tent at the Polytechnic University campus in Kabul. Some 2,000 delegates, 500 more than the number invited, arrived at the beginning of June. These included 50 additional delegates to satisfy the demands of various warlords.
  The loya jirga's primary task was to choose a president for the Afghan Transitional Administration who would lead the country until the official presidential elections in 2004. At the beginning, there were two candidates who had declared to run: former president of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani and the US-backed chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration, Hamid Karzai. Karzai was also supported by Abdullah Abdullah and Mohammad Fahim, two important leaders of the Northern Alliance. 
  A third possible candidate was Zahir Shah, former king of Afghanistan until 1973. He had spent years living in Rome but had returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime. Already at the Bonn Conference which installed the interim administration there was a group of supporters of Zahir Shah, called the Rome-group, who wanted to take the former king to take up the position of head of state.
  Upon arrival in Kabul, more than 800 delegates signed a petition urging the nomination of Zahir Shah as head of state, if only as a figurehead. In view of the speculation, which the petition aroused, US and UN representatives pressed the former king to withdraw. The start of the loya jirga was delayed from 10 to 11 June because of "logistical and preparatory problems." On 10 June, the US representative Zalmay Khalilzad gave a press conference in which he declared that Zahir Shah was not a candidate. The same day, in a press conference of Zahir Shah, the former king confirmed this and said "I have no intention of restoring the monarchy. I am not a candidate for any position in the Loya Jirga." Hamid Karzai, who sat next to Zahir Shah at the press conference, called Zahir Shah the "father of the nation" and thanked him for the "confidence His Majesty has put in me."
caption: Participants in the 2002 loya jirga
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