The Independent Election Commission Chief Fazal Ahmad Manawi has said polls may not be held in areas where sufficient security measures are not arranged.
It is a warning to the Government to ensure security for the presidential elections in 2014. The IEC Chief also said the Commission is taking all steps to ‘minimize’ fraud in polls. He admitted that it would be baseless to claim completely fraud-free elections. He added that most effective way to reduce chances of rigging and fraud was through distribution of electronic ID cards.
Manawi says IEC will not send ballot boxes to insecure areas. He mentioned that the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Rural Development (MRRD) could not carry out its development projects in 33 districts due to security concerns, and similarly there is no state judicial presence in 66 districts across the country. MRRD is the only ministry with widest network and access in public works and presence of governance. It is a serious concern that 33 districts are insecure for them, and there are no judges in 66 districts. The Commission will share details of polling centers with Interior and Defense ministries on February 25 to let them prepare for early security arrangements.
A well-wishing ambition, but it is unlikely that Fazal Ahmad Manawi will remain in his position. His tenure will end soon. Manawi is a respected and non-controversial figure good to lead the IEC through the next elections. His earlier stance on using old voter registration cards were also disregarded by his deputy when Manawi was traveling abroad. He had said the polls will not be transparent if the older voter registration cards are used. Before his statement, President Karzai had said the government could not provide the needed money for new voter registration, and old cards must be used. When Manawi was traveling to India, IEC ‘decided’ and announced old voter cards would be used. The decision has been strongly opposed by all major opposition groups, but the Government seems to completely ignore the issue.
The old cards of the previous voter registration can be bought at cheap prices all over the country. There were over 17 million of them, while the number of actual eligible voters for this year is about 15 million. Rigging would be unavoidable with the old lists. The fraud machinery could actually hijack the election results through ghost voters. Two million nonexistent fraud registered voters can decide the fate of Presidential elections in 2014.
The Government has been playing delay-tactic with the computerized ID cards. It was supposed to start long ago, but the new deadline is March 21. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology says that it has signed a contract with an IT firm called General Technology Resources.
Manawi had earlier said, “Success in voter registration is in fact success in elections. If this project fails, we will not have a successful election without fraudulent issues. There is limited time left and we are still at the beginning.”
The Government should push the process and start electronic ID registrations. A smooth transfer of power through free, fair and transparent elections must be ensured to avoid any crisis in 2014. Similar issues of fraud had caused a deadlock in 2009. Repeat of that experience will not pass smoothly next time. It will take the system down. Such a crisis could derail the entire process and we could plunge into political instability much more serious and threatening manner than 2009.
There is enough time for a rapid and swift process. Officials say the e-tazkira project will take time and it cannot be completed before 2014 elections. But we have more than one year to go.