KABUL, Oct 12: The first election of Loya Jirga members to approve the new Afghan constitution will begin on Wednesday in the northeast of the country due to an early onset of winter in the region, a UN spokesman said.

“Representatives of the districts of Badakhshan province on Wednesday will elect their own representative to Loya Jirga,” said the spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), Manuel de Almeida Silva, on Sunday.

Elections for the constitutional Loya Jirga are to be finished before the coming of winter in northern Badakhshan province, 320km northeast of the capital Kabul.

“Election in the rest of the country will start between end of November and the beginning of December,” he added.

Loya Jirga is to adopt the new Afghan constitution in Dec.

The text of the new constitution will be released in the next few days. Loya Jirga will be composed of 500 members. Among these 450 will be elected by the representatives of the population and 50 will be selected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Out of 450 which are supposed to be elected, 344 will be elected by the 15,000 district representatives across the country.—AFP