Afghanistan's parliament Saturday began voting on President Hamid Karzai's cabinet nominees, nearing the end of a long process that should fill the political vacuum with a government, officials said. Parliamentarians began casting secret ballots for 24 ministerial portfolios, with the results expected to be announced late Saturday, parliamentary spokesman Hasib Noori told selfnews. 'All 24 ministers will be voted for today,' he said. 'The result is expected to be announced after finishing the counting by six o'clock today, then the cabinet will be be approved today.' The position of foreign minister, the 25th cabinet post, will not be filled until after the London conference set for January 28, which will be attended by outgoing incumbent Rangin Dadfar Spanta, he said. The timetable for swearing-in the new cabinet is up to the president, a spokesman said, but he could give no indication of when that might be. Karzai was announced the winner of an August presidential election, which was later proved to have been riddled with corruption. He was inaugurated in November. The political vacuum following the poll has dragged on for more than four months, amid pressure from the international community to ensure ministers are competent and as clean as possible, given Afghanistan's prevailing corruption. International graft watchdog Transparency International has said Afghanistan is the second-most corrupt country in the world, after Somalia. Diplomats have expressed overall satisfaction with Karzai's choices for his cabinet, as he has left some respected officials in place and limited the number of warlords who backed him in the poll. 'It's a cabinet we can work with,' one senior Western diplomat said. The international community maintains 113,000 troops in Afghanistan, battling a Taliban insurgency becoming increasingly deadly, with the toll of foreign soldiers surpassing 500 in 2009, compared with 295 for 2008. 