Politics of Afghanistan

The politics of Afghanistan consists of the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly, with a president serving as the head of state and commander-in-chief of the military. The nation is currently led by the Karzai administration under President Hamid Karzai who is backed by two vice presidents, Mohammed Fahim and Karim Khalili. In the last decade the politics of Afghanistan have been heavily influenced by NATO countries, especially by the United States, in an effort to stabilise and democratise the country. In 2004, the nation's new constitution was adopted and an executive was president elected. The following year a general election to choose parliamentarians took place.

The current president Hamid Karzai was declared the first ever democratically elected head of state in Afghanistan in 2004, winning a second five-year term in 2009. The National Assembly is Afghanistan's national legislature. It is a bicameral body, composed of the House of the People and the House of Elders. The first legislature was elected in 2005 and the current one in 2010. Members of the Supreme Court were appointed by the president to form the judiciary. Together, this new system is to provide a new set of checks and balances that was unheard of in the country.