A group of Afghan presidential candidates said the leadership of the Independent Election Commission and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission have “failed” to deliver their promise on bringing reforms in the structure of the electoral bodies. 

The candidates, who attended a ceremony on Friday, said some officials who have been accused of corruption and fraud in parliamentary elections are still working in the two commissions.

“The advice of the council of [presidential] candidates is that those who were involved in the parliamentary elections crisis should be removed from their jobs as soon as possible,” said Shahab Hakimi, a coordinator of the presidential candidates’ council.

The election commission officials said efforts are underway for the upcoming presidential elections – scheduled for September 28.

The criticism against the election commission has been huge after the parliamentary elections. As part of these criticisms, a group of protesting candidates, who are observing a sit-in protest near the Presidential Palace for the past two months, said their complaints have not been assessed so far.

“Nothing has been done while we are here at this sit-in camp for the past two and a half months,” said Sayed Mohammad Hariq, a protesting candidate.

“Meeting with the president [Ashraf Ghani] and assessment of our evidence and documents were our main demands which were not met,” said Sediqa Mubariz, a protesting candidate.

The Presidential Palace has said that the demands of the protesting candidates are not “legitimate” and that the government cannot do anything for them.