Mohammad Younus Toghra, a member of the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), on Thursday accused the body of ethnic prejudice and nepotism in its internal elections.
Toghra said he won the election to lead the IECC twice in the internal election of the commission, however, some members within the commission do not recognize his victory because of their "ethnic, racial and geographical" prejudice.
“One of the miseries of our society is this problem that originates from racial, ethnic and geographical discrimination. We never manage to resolve these issues,” said Toghra.
Election monitoring bodies have said that in order to resolve tensions in the commission, its members should act on its internal procedures.
“Members of the election commissions are obliged to organize elections based on their internal procedures and rules,” said Naeem Ayoubzada, the head of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA).
“Unfortunately, using the current legal documents, the existing situation within the complaints commission has not been resolved, but this issue can be resolved by consulting legal procedures,” said legal expert Wahid Farzayee.
Based on the election laws of Afghanistan, members of the electoral bodies—the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC)--need to appoint their head leader after every two years.