The suggestions were sent by the Electoral Reforms Commission to the IEC after a three-month working period
A number of electoral monitoring organizations on Friday accused government and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) of failing to implement suggestions about the electoral process made by the Electoral Reforms Commission
The suggestions were sent by the Electoral Reforms Commission to the IEC after a three-month working period.
“A section of the suggestions has not been considered in the legislative decree and another part has not been implemented by the IEC,” Rahmatullah Salihi, a member of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said.
A number of main suggestions listed by the reforms commission are as below:
• Changing the single non-transferable voting system to a parallel system
• Invalidation of voter cards
• Specifying the education level of provincial council candidates
• Preparing the voters list based on the voters National Identity Cards ahead of elections
• Hiring two foreigners in the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission without the right to vote
• Hiring government employees instead of contracted staff during elections
• Accountability of the electoral commissions to the transparency committee
• Allocating a seat to Hindus in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament)
• Making electoral sites smaller
• Rolling out electronic National Identity Cards (e-NIC)
• Approving 25 percent of seats for women in the provincial councils and district council elections
• Decreasing the IEC members to seven
• Decreasing the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission members to five
“Government has failed to implement these suggestions and also IEC simply has ignored the reform commission’s suggestions,” said Janan Abdul Rahimzai, a member of Afghanistan Civil Society and Election Network.
The Independent Election Commission meanwhile accepted that a big part of the suggestions has not been considered so far.
“A part of the suggestions will not be implemented, but the IEC welcomes and implements any suggestion which can help in bringing reforms and regaining the public trust in the electoral process,” Gula Jan Abdul Bade Sayad, the IEC secretary and spokesman said.
Last month, the CEO’s office announced that government is committed to holding the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections by the end of this solar year (21 March 2018).
Date: 21/04/2017
Source: http://www.tolonews.com/afghanistan/iec-accused-ignoring-reforms-commissions-suggestions
