Malalai Joya shot to fame when she stood up during deliberations to approve a new constitution in 2003 and denounced factional commanders as criminals who should be put on trial.

Now 27, Joya will find herself rubbing shoulders with many of the same warlords in a Wolesi Jirga (House of the People) elected along with provincial councils in the September 18 polls.

The UN-Afghan election Commission released final provisional results from the first two of 34 provinces on Thursday, showing Joya had come second in Farah in the west with 7,813 votes, or seven per cent of those cast there.

Chief Electoral Officer Peter Erben said the vote count was complete apart from ballots from more than 1,000 of the nearly 27,000 polling stations quarantined due to suspected fraud.

Nearly complete partial results from the rest of the country country show that dozens of factional strongmen, dubbed warlords by their critics, appear to have won seats in the Assembly. But indications are that women—guaranteed at least 68 seats in the 249-seat house—could hold a balance of power.

Erben said final results would be announced by the end of October once a complaints process against alleged vote stuffing was completed. —Reuters