Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Govt Accused of Not Prioritizing Elections

Govt Accused of Not  Prioritizing Elections

KABUL - A senior Independent Election Commission official says government needs to take the elections seriously.
The Independent Election Commission claims that elections-related activities are not among government’s priorities and that leaders need to take the matter seriously.
Drawing up a voters list, determining constituencies and bringing reforms within the election commission are key to holding transparent elections, the IEC said.
Meanwhile, there is still no clarity on the fate of 14 provincial heads of the Independent Election Commission.
“If this (determining constituencies) does not happen, the methods of previous elections will be used (in the upcoming elections),” said Wasima Badghisi, operational deputy chairperson of the commission.
“The only draft which government works on is the draft of determining constituencies which will be finalized,” Jawed Faisal, deputy spokesman for the Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said.
“All other issues which have been sent by the commission to government have been worked on and have been implemented. Government is doing its responsibility on its part,” Faisal added.
In addition, the IEC still needs to send the names of three shortlisted candidates for the position of head secretariat to the president. According to the IEC, 29 people have applied for the position.
Commenting on this, Badghisi said: “This process has different phases including tests, interviews and shortlisting.”
But electoral monitoring organization have said government does not have the political will to hold elections.
“If we look at this issue, we see that the voters list is still to be prepared, provincial employees are yet to be appointed, the 10 million (paper) identity cards which should have been disturbed have not been rolled out and in general, the constituencies (issue) as a crucial part is stuck in government,” said
Mohammad Naeem Ayubzada, head of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan.
The upcoming parliamentary and district council elections is scheduled to be held in July. (Tolo news)