Afghanistan's ongoing constitutional assembly on Thursday was plunged into deadlock as over 100 delegates stayed away from voting on the amended draft constitution. 

Opposition delegates, mostly from minority ethnics and supporters of former Jihadi leaders who fought the Soviet occupation in 1980s and the Taliban regime in 1990s, criticized the vote as a mockery to achieve the agenda imposed by the government.

They stayed on their seats when assembly chairman Sibghatullah Mujadadi asked all the 502 delegates to cast their ballots on controversial articles in the draft.

Some of the delegates refused to leave the meeting site for lunch, demanding the chairman to continue the session unless agreement is reached on disputed issues.

Key issues such as the country's future political system, the authority of parliament, official languages, and the role of dual citizenship holders have been dominating the unruly sessions at the assembly since its inception in mid-December.

"We will not accept the assembly's decisions if Uzbek language is not included as a third official language," said Ahmad Khan, a delegate from the minority Uzbek ethnic group.

The draft constitution stipulates Pashto and Dari as the country's official languages.

The constitutional Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, has become a word battle ground among representatives of various political and ethnic groups, as many of the delegates forwarded their own ethnic or group interests.

"We will not allow any dual nationality holder to become president or minister," said Mullah Wali, a Tajik delegate from north Afghanistan.

Opposing a strong presidential system, Wali said that a president should be accountable before the nation and the parliament should have the right to question the president about his performance.

The delegates from across the country have been debating a 160-article draft constitution prepared by the US-installed government of President Hamid Karzai for approving the country's new national document.

The most controversial subject in the draft was a US-style presidential system as the opposition favored a parliamentary system with a prime minister to balance the presidential power.

Opposition delegates accused Karzai's transitional government of interfering in the assembly affairs, saying that officials used a stick and carrot policy to rush through their agenda.

"Government functionaries in their attempt to get approved the draft constitution were even involved in intimidation," Abdul Shakoor Waqif, a Kabul delegate said. 

The stormy assembly, which entered its 19th day on Thursday, has exhausted many of its members, including chairman Mujadadi, and even ordinary Afghans.

"I became crazy because of such lengthy useless discussions, so I am asking you delegates to go for vote and resolve disputed issues," shouted Mujadadi.

"The session tired all Afghans, if it fails to produce good results, the country would again plunge into civil war," said Abdul Shah Khan, a guard working for a foreign agency in the affluent Kabul district of Wazir Akbar Khan.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2004)