E-voting System Not Practical in Afghanistan: Task Team

Source: 
Tolo News
Publication date: 
Apr 20 2017

According to the commission, it would be difficult to conduct the country’s parliamentary and district council elections in the current year.

The e-voting system assessment committee on Thursday said that the complete implementation of e-voting system in Afghanistan is not practical.
 
According to the commission, it would be difficult to conduct the country’s parliamentary and district council elections in the current year.
 
According to the committee, currently, the e-voting system is applicable only in a few areas of the election process which include the voter registration process, the certification of voters’ identity during voting and the transfer of results of voting.
 
But, the CEO's office has said that investigations and assessments of the process are underway.
 
The CEO's office has said that bringing about systematic reforms in Afghanistan’s election system is a must.
 
The commission started its assessments on the e-voting system in Afghanistan three weeks ago.
 
Based on the findings of the committee, electricity shortage, internet, security, economy, possible technical issues, the lack of information among  Afghan citizens about the system are among key challenges that can obstruct the process completely.
 
“The month of November 2017 has been set as the date for the elections by the government of Afghanistan but it will be very difficult to conduct the elections,” said Mohammad Naeem Ayoubzada, a member of the assessment committee.
 
The CEO's office says that implementing fundamental reforms in the election system was among top commitments of the National Unity Government (NUG), adding that the NUG is strongly committed to the transparent poll.
 
“The government is still committed to conduct the elections with an e-voting system to prevent fraud in the elections and ensure transparency,” said the CEO's spokesman Mujiburrahman Rahimi.
 
Meanwhile, observers and election monitoring groups have said that the government needs to revive the trust of Afghans in the election system, asking the government to fulfill its responsibiliites regarding transparent elections in the country.
 
“Fraud is one of the serious issues in the elections, there is a need to revive public trust in the election process so that the people commute to the polling stations again,” said Zekiray Barakzai, chairman Democracy Watch Afghanistan.

Date: 20/04/2017

Source: http://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/e-voting-system-not-practical-afghanistan-task-team