Former Afghan Commanders, Taliban, Women Win Seats

KABUL (Reuters) - Final results of Afghanistan's legislative elections show several former commanders of military factions, three old Taliban officials, women activists and several ex-communists won seats in the new parliament.

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 U.N.-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 U.N.-organized 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 U.S.-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.

Qanuni's brother Haji Baryali said Qanuni and his allies had hoped to win up to half the seats in parliament but it was unclear if they had achieved that goal.

Qanuni is an ethnic Tajik and a senior leader of an alliance that helped U.S.-led forces topple the Taliban in 2001, whereas Karzai is a Pashtun, the largest ethnic group and the one from which most Taliban were drawn.

The vote was mostly based on ethnic lines because of the dominance of the tribes in their respective regions. Turnout was 6.8 million of about 12 million registered voters.