KABUL, Afghanistan — A group of lawmakers, many of them women, blocked the Afghan Parliament’s newly appointed speaker from taking his seat on Sunday, and security forces were dispatched after a scuffle broke out.

Members of Parliament on Saturday picked Mir Rahman Rahmani, a businessman and former military officer, for the role of speaker despite his just failing to win the number of votes needed to take the job.

The turmoil came just a few days after the newly elected Parliament started its first session on Thursday. The election in October was delayed by more than three years and was plagued by vote-rigging and bribery. The results, finally announced last month, were supposed to have been issued within weeks of the election. But it was only on Tuesday that representatives were confirmed for the last open parliamentary seats for Kabul, the capital.

The clash over Mr. Rahmani’s legitimacy as speaker was televised and quickly spread to social media. Parliamentary members cursed at one another from across the main hall of the recently completed parliamentary building, a multimillion-dollar structure donated by India. Mr. Rahmani’s rival, Kamal Naser Osuli, sat in the speaker’s chair, saying that he was the rightful holder of the position. One lawmaker, Zal Mohammad Zalmay, rushed at Mr. Osuli while wielding the speaker’s gavel.