[1] The most important task for the Loya Jirga was to choose a president for the Transitional Administration who would lead the country until official presidential elections could be held in 2004.

Initially, two candidates who had declared to run: former president of Afghanistan and Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani, and the American-backed chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration Hamid Karzai.

Already at the Bonn Conference, which installed the interim administration there was a group of supporters of Zahir Shah, called the Rome-group, advocated for the former king to take up the position of head of state.

Upon arrival in Kabul, more than 800 delegates signed a petition urging the nomination of Zahir Shah as Head of State, if only as a figurehead.

On June 10, the American representative Zalmay Khalilzad gave a press conference in which he declared that Zahir Shah was not a candidate.

And also Masooda Jalal, a woman doctor working with the World Food Programme, and Mahfoz Nadai, an Uzbek army officer, poet, and deputy government minister, gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot.

[2] The election for president of the transitional administration was held by secret ballot on June 13, 2002, with black-and-white photos of the candidates adjacent to their names.

On June 19, the last day of the Loya Jirga, Karzai announced the names of 14 ministers for the future Afghan transitional administration, including three Vice-Presidents.

This led to some controversy, as delegates stated that there had not been a proper vote and that the cabinet had not been democratically selected but was the result of political negotiations parallel to the Loya jirga.

The powerful warlord Ismail Khan was not part of the administration, but he was represented by his son, Mir Wais Saddiq.

In the years after the government was established, President Karzai made efforts to limit the worst effects of warlord dominance.

However, some of the king's supporters thought that an honorary title wasn't enough and would have preferred to see him in an official position as president, with Karzai as prime minister.

Because the members loyal to Zahir Shah, united in the 'Rome group,' felt they had too little influence, Karzai added Zalmay Rassoul as Security Adviser and Amin Arsala as a fifth vice-president at the end of June.

Because of the issue of Pashtun underrepresentation, Yunus Qanuni, one of the important Northern Alliance leaders, told the opening session he would be resigning as Minister of the interior so Karzai could strengthen the national government by broadening its ethnic mix.

They denied the new Interior Minister, the 80-year-old Taj Mohammad Wardak, access to the Interior Ministry[5] After Karzai appointed Qanuni as special adviser on security, through which he retained unofficial control over the Afghan intelligence apparatus and became the de facto supervisor of Wardak, he decided to join the administration anyway.