KABUL - The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Monday said that it has reversed its previous decision on a single-seat constituency election plan and instead has decided to make the electoral districts smaller to ensure fair representation.
As such the IEC has sent the plan to the presidential palace. It hopes this strategy will ensure fair representation in the elections, said Wasima Badghisi, operational deputy head of the IEC.
“On the basis of the mechanism forged by the independent election commission, we have divided the provinces according to the population and their seat reservations in the national assembly,” said Badghisi.
The plan of smaller electoral districts has however been met with mixed reactions by election observers and election monitoring groups.
“Making the electoral districts smaller is aimed at ensuring fair representation; this would help both the people and the candidates,” said Jandad Spinghar, head of the Afghan Civil Society Election Network.
On the other hand, Mohammad Naeem Nazari, the head of the Afghan Civil Society Human Rights Network, said: “Local powerful elements could maintain their grip, mostly the intellectual portion of Afghanistan can get harmed by this.”
It is believed that decreasing the size of electoral districts will help ensure just and equal participation of all ethnicities in the elections and it will also hold winning candidates accountable to their constituents.
At the same time, there are some concerns that the new plan could pave the way for the infiltration and meddling of powerful people in elections and the suppression of middle class rivals.
According to the IEC, the election commission has also stepped up its efforts to digitize the election process.
The IEC says it has sent this plan to the president for approval.

“We expected the government to respond to our proposals as soon as possible; the end of Hoot (February ) was the deadline which was set by us” said Badghisi. (Tolonews)