KABUL, Afghanistan - The delegates complained about the food. They ridiculed the man running the meeting. They even criticized the warlords in the front row.

Inside an air-conditioned white tent billowing in the wind, Afghan democracy took a baby step forward yesterday.

In the first day of open debate in the loya jirga, or grand council, to select a transitional government, the 1,551 delegates proved that Afghans could be as adept in debate as on the battlefield; they argued over issues ranging from poverty to the national anthem to ceremonial titles for the king.

After two decades of Soviet occupation, civil war and Taliban oppression, Afghan leaders were freely expressing their political ambitions without the aid of guns.

The loya jirga "is an exercise in voice," said Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai, senior adviser to the interim president, Hamid Karzai. "The people of Afghanistan are acquiring voice for the first time in 23 years."

With that free expression, they did not get much work done. By the end of a very long day, the delegates had covered less than half their agenda, succeeding only in casting ballots for the five-member panel that will run the rest of the proceedings this week.

Selection of the head of state was postponed until today; three people, including Karzai, are competing for the position.

Many delegates also expressed concerns that political bosses, backed by foreigners, were engineering secret deals to select a new government. In particular, supporters of the former king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, accused U.S. officials of pressuring the king to withdraw as a candidate for head of state.

But for scores of others, the proceedings seemed a cathartic opportunity to bicker, cajole, lecture - and even to discuss things calmly. Although the sessions were not open to the public, they were broadcast around most of the country on radio and to some parts on television.

Asadullah Nawabi, a former director of education in Oruzgan Province, expressed the spirit of the day when he complained that "six days is not enough time" for people to discuss the nation's problems.

The loya jirga, which opened Tuesday and is scheduled to end Sunday, is supposed to appoint a government that will oversee drafting a new constitution and will run the country until elections in 18 months.

"The delegates here are representing the people," Nawabi said. "People who do not have clothing, who do not have sandals, who do not have food. You say we do not have time. Why did we come?"

Another man rose to complain that people were getting sick from the food. Yet another scoffed at a proposal to bestow upon the former king the title of "father of the nation."

Several speakers also complained about the presence of military commanders in the tent, saying the rules of the loya jirga forbade people who had committed war crimes from taking part. Many of the warlords have been accused of killing civilians during the civil war that raged through the 1990s.

"You said no one would be a delegate who was a murderer or criminal," said Safar Muhammad, a delegate from Kandahar. "There are a lot of military people in this meeting. Is this a loya jirga or a military shura?" A shura is a traditional council.

Those military men included Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum from Mazar-e Sharif, now the deputy minister of defense; Ismail Khan from Heart; Gen. Daoud Khan from Kunduz; and Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf from Kabul.

Outside observers said the presence of so many warlords in the loya jirga showed the difficult time Afghanistan will have in establishing a strong central government.

Karzai underscored that problem Tuesday when he called for an end to warlordism and, in the same speech, heartily praised General Dostum and other commanders.

Afghan and European soldiers operated a tight security cordon around the site. Afghan soldiers with machine guns stood at almost every main intersection within miles, and delegates had to stand in line for two to three hours waiting to be searched.