KABUL - In a conference on gender and elections, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday warned to disclose the names of government officials involved in meddling in the first round of the elections. IEC had sent a list of the officials' names to the Presidential Palace; however, it has received no responses. The commission intends to disclose the list to the media if the Presidential Palace does not take any initiative.

"Governors, police chiefs and mayors worked in favor of particular candidates," IEC Chief Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said. "We hope that the president takes a decision in this regard or we would have to disclose the list to the media."

IEC emphasized the importance of monitoring in holding transparent elections and asked local and international observers to closely monitor the runoff on June 14.

"The candidates can assign their observers to any polling centers," Nuristani said. "They can assign 35,000 observers--that is about fiver observers in each polling center."

IEC also declared its commitment to hold the runoff even better than the first round elections.

"The runoff will be held even better than the first round," IEC Secretary Ziaul Haq Amarkhil said. "We ask that people leave their houses to vote for their favorite candidate and help IEC prevent frauds."

Additionally, the commission stated that it welcomes the 36 percent participation rate of women in the first round and hopes that the rate would increase to 50 percent in the runoff. (Tolonews)