Lawmakers in Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Monday approved a draft plan to regulate salaries for district council members. 

Based on the draft plan, members of provincial councils who are employed as teachers or who have a government job will not be paid; however members who are not civil servants will get salaries.  

“Those who serve as teachers, and government employees, their salaries and privileges must be protected and they should continue with their jobs, but those who have no jobs, they must be paid,” said an MP Muhayyuddin Mahdi. 

According to the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) up to now 3,731 candidates have registered to run for district council elections. Of those registered, 271 are female candidates. 

But not a single woman has registered as a candidate in six provinces, while in other provinces the number is much lower compared to their male counterparts, said the IEC.

“We have no female candidates in six provinces such as Nangarhar, Kandahar, Paktika, Paktia and Farah,” said Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy spokesman for the IEC. 

Lawmakers have however appealed to government to pay these district council members.  

Last week the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) said government has no budget to pay district council members’ salaries. 

Based on a preliminary plan outlined by the IDLG, members of district councils will have to serve voluntarily, said the IDLG.

But institutions overseeing the elections meanwhile have raised concerns over the low turnout of candidates for the district council elections. 

This comes after officials from the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) said last week that government has no budget to pay them salaries. 

Based on the preliminary plan outlined by the IDLG, members of district councils are supposed to serve voluntarily.

Syed Ahmad Khamosh, Head of Coordination of Local Council Affairs, has said that government does not have the money to cover salaries. 

Based on the law, there are around 2,800 seats for members of district councils and government would need to hire over 800 civil servants to process working procedures of these members, he said.

Khamosh said the money government needs for salaries for members of district councils is estimated to be about 500 million AFs per annum which is beyond the government’s financial capability. 

“We have only considered some allowances that they will use when they attend meetings, once or twice. But more than this, the issue of a connecting salary, is the authority of president and the national assembly,” said Khamosh. 

“Some privileges which come in the context of attendance have been considered. But to allocate more funds, it is supposed to be the authority of the national assembly and the president,” added Khamosh.

Last week, election watchdog Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) said so far there were no candidates for elections in some districts of Uruzgan, Farah, Kandahar and Ghazni provinces.

Observers said at the time that in Logar only one person nominated himself for district council elections, in Nimroz seven, in Zabul five, in Badghis nine and in Faryab province only two. 

“The situation is concerning in seven provinces, either you have few candidates or it is hard for people to participate in the elections. This makes the race meaningless,” said Yousuf Rashid, CEO of FEFA.

Election commission figures show that so far over almost six million voters have registered to vote.

The total stands at 6,381,377 of which 4,169,877 are men, 2,088,134 are women, 122,845 are Kuchis and 522 are Sikhs and Hindus.