KABUL - The process was officially launched in Kabul on Saturday for candidates for both parliamentary and district council elections.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Saturday officially launched the process for candidates to register for the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections. 
IEC members announced the start of the process at a press conference in Kabul and said all preparations have been taken for holding the elections.
Based on the election law, the candidates for parliamentary and district council elections have to be citizens of Afghanistan, must not have a criminal background and should be at least 25 years old.
IEC chief Gula Jan Abdulbadi Sayyad said the parliamentary and district council elections will be held based on the former election law and that every province will be one electoral constituency.
A number of people and politicians had asked the IEC to amend the election law and make the constituencies smaller. The IEC however, last week announced that the outline for making the constituencies smaller had been rejected by government.
The IEC chief in the meantime raised concerns over interference in election commission affairs and urged all influential figures, politicians and government to remain neutral in the upcoming elections. 
The candidate registration process started amid the ongoing voter registration process and based on the election commission statistics, so far over three million voters have registered their names across the country. (Tolo news)