A group of delegates to Afghanistan's historic loya jirga who claim the constitution they approved earlier this month was altered ahead of its signing into law have taken their complaints to the government and international observers.
Abdul Hafiz Mansoor said he had taken the group's complaints to the United Nations, the government, the US Embassy, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and to non-government organisations.
The group of about 20 delegates from the capital, Kabul, is headed by Mansoor, a former anti-Soviet mujahedin fighter and head of the opposition bloc at the loya jirga (grand assembly) that opposed many of the arguments put forward by the government of President Hamid Karzai.
"I myself have discovered more than 15 changes that the government does not have the authority to make," Mansoor told AFP.
The new constitution was approved unanimously by the 502 delegates to the loya jirga on January 4 after three weeks of intense debate and finally signed into law by Karzai on Monday.
It enshrines a presidential system of government backed up by a strong bicameral parliament and paves the way for Afghanistan's first democratic elections later this year.
The opposition bloc, which also includes loya jirga delegates from Kabul's surrounding provinces, has also encouraged delegates from the north of the country to study the new constitution and make formal complaints, Mansoor said.
"The constitution which was signed by President Karzai, if it is carefully read... compared to the constitution approved and ratified by delegates to the loya jirga has changes," Mansoor told AFP Tuesday.
"After the end of the loya jirga nobody has the authority to change what is in the constitution, but now in the constitution after the loya jirga there has been lots of changes."
The director of the constitutional commission's secretariat, Farouk Wardak, said the text approved on Monday by Karzai was the final text as accepted by the loya jirga on January 4.
The text was signed by the head of the commission under the supervision of UN and US representatives, he said, adding that there was "absolutely no manipulation or changes".
The misunderstandings over the text arise from the fact that delegates were given the text that was printed during the night of January 3rd before final changes were made by the assembly, Wardak said.
Mansoor says changes were made to the wording in sections that covered official languages, presidential powers and duties and the administration.
Mansoor has previously said that his bloc would have a candidate ready to contest the presidential elections, scheduled for June.
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