KABUL - Chairman of the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) said that issuance of new electronic identity cards, exact number of voters and tight security would ensure transparency in future elections.

Speaking at a national seminar “lesson learned from 2014 elections,” Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani suggested “there should be a single national ID cards for everybody to overcome fraud and vote rigging in the next elections.”

In addition, a nation-wide census was also needed to identify the exact number of voters in the country, he noted.

Abdul Ali Muhammadi, legal advisor to President Ashraf Ghani said last week that new electronic ID cards would soon be issued.

Issuance of electronic ID cards was a joint project of Interior Ministry and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The Interior Ministry promised in 2011 to issue electronic ID cards for six million people ahead of 2014 elections. However, their promise could not be materialized.

According to Communications Ministry, the new ID cards would also contain voting cards, driving license and other details of the holder in a digital format.

According to central statistics organization, Afghanistan’s population was 26.5 million in the year 2,000, however no survey has taken place in the last two years because of insecurity. (Pajhwok)