As the election draws near, independent monitors and the public are alarmed over a lack of transparency and credibility in the process.

On Thursday, officials from the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA) released their report on campaign violations from the past two months. TEFA said that the report covers several types of violations including the failure by candidates to disclose the details of their election expenditures, and the interference of government officials in the election process.

Naeem Ayoubzada, the head of TEFA, said that a number of governors have been directed to work in support of specific candidates:

“Unfortunately, in several provinces the governors have been asked to pave the way for elections and work in support of certain campaigns…Daikundi is one of the provinces. Similarly, in other provinces directives have been issued to work in support of a certain team.”

And in some cases, according to Ayoubzada, governors were even asked to collect certain quantities of votes for specific candidates:

“One of the provinces is Paktia, where the governor has been asked to collect 350,000 votes. A message has been sent from a specific team to the governor to come up with 350,000 votes.”

TEFA has also raised concerns over the establishment of polling sites in areas where low voter turnout –based on the past election as well as pre-election voter registration—doesn’t warrant more stations.

“During parliamentary elections, 1,181 votes were cast at 13 polling sites in Pul-e-Alam. But this time for the presidential elections, this figure has increased to 37 sites and the overall number of voters have been estimated to be 13,600 votes,” said TEFA officials. 

During two months of campaigning, the candidates tried to explain their programs to the public; however, many Afghans don’t believe the candidates have any solid programs.

“Today, the country is not in the position where people are just satisfied with what the candidate chants,” said Nazar Mohammad, a resident in Kabul city.

“Children were exploited for campaign purposes and government officials also participated in some campaign rallies of the candidates,” said Yousuf Rashid, the CEO of Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).

The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has said that it has registered over a 100 complaints from the candidates’ campaign teams about rival teams.

“We have registered over 104 complaints in our central and provincial headquarters,” said Younus Toghra, an IECC commissioner.

The Electoral Complaints Commission has also fined over 80 people for their involvement in electoral violations during the campaign.