Afghanistan’s electoral institutions—the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC)--on Wednesday briefed Afghan political parties and members of civil society institutions about draft amendments to the country’s electoral system.

The two commissions said they hope the contents in the draft amendments will further strengthen the Afghan electoral system and give it more credibility in future elections.

In the draft plan, the electoral bodies have recommended the following for future elections:

• The introduction of an electronic voting system

• A limit to the number of candidates

• Changes to curb electoral violations

• Use of electronic ID cards during voting

“There was a significant amount of violations---only 10,000 Afs was levied as a fine, this cannot address the needs of the current time,” said Mohammad Qasim Elyasi, a member of the IECC.

“The political parties requested two or three days to study the draft amendments thoroughly,” said Faizan-ul-Haq, representative of the Peace and Development Party.

“The challenges and the massive irregularities that we saw in the past elections---these challenges and violations need to be dealt for future elections,” said Khan Zaman Mudaber, a representative of the Harakat-e-Islami party.

The draft amendments are expected to be referred to the Afghan Ministry of Justice once the political parties and the civil society institutions complete their debate on the document.