Ex-commanders, Taliban win seats

The results of the September 18 vote for the 249-seat lower house, or Wolesi Jirga, and councils in all 34 provinces were finally released on Saturday, after being delayed by a slow count and accusations of vote fraud.

"We have now completed certification of all final results for both the Wolesi Jirga and the provincial council elections," said a statement by Bissmillah Bissmil, chairman of the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body.

Parliament is expected to sit for the first time next month in a renovated old assembly building.

One of parliament's key jobs will be to approve or veto the nomination of cabinet members. An election for a new upper house is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

Bissmil described the polls, the first in decades in war-torn Afghanistan, as a milestone in the country's transition to democracy.

The UN-organised elections were held on a non-party basis, with all 5,800 candidates running as independents, raising fears that a fragmented parliament will emerge, with members focused on parochial issues as they compete for government resources.

President Hamid Karzai has no political party and stayed out of the fray, although several supporters, including two relatives, won parliamentary seats.

Yunus Qanuni, leader of an alliance of parties opposed to the US-backed president, also won a seat. The former interior and education minister in Karzai's government came a distant second to Karzai in the October 2004 presidential election.