Afghan convention hits stalemate
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A loya jirga delegate casts his vote on a draft constitution Thursday.
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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's historic constitutional convention ended its 19th day in Kabul Thursday with a stalemate, according to a senior official with the Afghan loya jirga, or grand council.
Farook Wardag, head of the jirga's secretariat, said that 264 of the council's 502 delegates voted Thursday but more than 200 delegates refused to cast their ballots in protest over the content of the proposed constitution's 12 articles.
Wardag could not say how the refusal of more than 47 percent of the delegates to cast a ballot would affect the outcome.
Wardag said the delegates were staging a sit-in at the council's huge tent and were refusing to eat or pray as part of their protest.
The officials also said no activity would take place Friday -- the Islamic holy day -- and that the votes cast Thursday would be counted Saturday.
The draft constitution, supported by U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and members of the Pashtun majority, envisions an Islamic republic with a bicameral legislature and a strong president, who also will serve as commander-in-chief of the military.
Critics -- most members of the minority northern tribes -- say the draft constitution gives one person too much control, since the president would appoint one-third of the legislature's upper house, as well as top judges and national security officials.
They seek a constitution that creates a parliament with more power over the president and the constitutional courts.
