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Boycott, protest mar Afghan voting on constitution

REUTERS, Kabul
Afghanistan's constitutional convention began voting yesterday, but up to a quarter of the 502 delegates refused to cast ballots for a draft charter backed by the United States after a long, acrimonious meeting.
Men and women from across the country lined up to vote inside an immense tent on a Kabul college campus on proposed amendments to the 160-article draft document, including one giving women more seats in parliament.
The draft outlines a strong presidential system with a limited role for parliament. It would also makes Islam the official religion but without Islamic Sharia law.
Interim leader Hamid Karzai has endorsed the draft, as have his supporters in the United States, who want to see him run for president in elections scheduled for
next June.
Karzai has argued a strong presidency is needed to rebuild the country after two decades of civil strife.
But his opponents at the constitutional loya jirga, or Grand Assembly, have criticized the process, saying it threatens to create an autocratic political system that sidelines minority groups such as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.
Karzai is from the largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, and the constitution could return the group to its traditional position at the center of Afghan power at the expense of minorities.
"This loya jirga is not a step toward stability," said delegate Wali Masood, brother of legendary Tajik commander Ahmad Shah Masood, assassinated by al-Qaeda over two years ago.
Opposition to Karzai at the assembly has been led by former President Burhanuddin Rabanni, Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum and Islamic conservative Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf.
All are linked to the Northern Alliance, a faction of mainly Tajiks that helped the United States topple the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001. None of the three leaders was seen voting yesterday.
Delegates were voting on amendments governing the powers of the presidency, whether minority languages would be given national status and if seats in parliament should be reserved for women and nomads.
They were also deciding whether to give provincial assemblies -- not the president -- the power to propose candidates for governor.