The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Monday said a committee has been tasked to investigate reports of links between some candidates and illegal armed groups.
According to the IECC, the committee will also investigate some candidates even though they have not had complaints lodged against them.
Meanwhile, a number of election watchdogs have said the IECC should review the complaints against the candidates in the presence of the media and members of the public.
The commission will be led by the head of the IECC Abdul Aziz Aryayee, and members of the commission will be from the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Ministry of Defense (MoD), National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), said Ali Reza Rouhani, the IECC’s spokesman.
“Whether it is a complaint or a report, naturally, these institutions can report on the individuals whom they think are present there and what the law has predicted about it, if these people exist or they are not on the list, they can report these people in their official report,” said Rouhani.
“The commission has been holding formal meetings about it over the past two days and in some way, decisions are made about such cases. Decisions were taken on some part of these issues, however, they have not yet been officially notified,” said Rouhani.
According to the IECC, most of the complaints filed are related to the preliminary list of candidates.
The IECC is scheduled to wrap up the assessment of the complaints filed against the candidates by August 2.
On the other hand, President Ashraf Ghani has assigned a special commission to assess the demands of Afghanistan’s political parties around elections, a government official said on Monday, as concerns over fraud in the voter registration process grows.
Meanwhile, Humayoun Jarir, a member of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-led Hizb-e-Islami group has said that the commission will work on the implementation of the plan outlined by the political parties aimed at ensuring transparency in the elections.
Officials from the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) have welcomed the move.
This commission will be led by Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish. Representatives of the political parties, the government and the IEC will be members of the commission.
“The president told us that a commission has been established. Representatives from the three sides including the political parties, election commission and government will be part of the commission. The commission will be headed by Mr. Danish. We consider this a positive step,” said Jarir.
“The political parties have recommended the voter registration process be a biometric system, but because there is not much time until elections, political parties have recommended that at least the process of voting in the elections must be based on a biometric system,” added Jarir.
“A single person has received up to 50 IDs, if elections are held in such circumstances, the elections will not resolve any problems and instead will push the country towards another crisis and this would be a repetition of the past elections and the parties do not want this,” said Muhaiyyudin Mahdi, a member of Jamiat-e-Islami party of Afghanistan.
But political parties have said that the voter registration process is rigged, and it will create a crisis in future and have insisted that a biometric system be implemented for election day.
“We welcome the formation of this (commission), but they should come and check the system. It is very late now, any change in the system will harm the elections,” said IEC commissioner Sayed Hafiz Hashemi.
Political parties and critics have said that over five million ghost voters have registered and that these records should be invalidated.