A former official of the Independent Election Commission and members of the electoral monitoring organizations on Monday said government had four years to bring systematic reforms to the election commissions, but it failed to do so.

Elections observers said it would be difficult for government to ensure the use of technology in the upcoming presidential elections due to lack of time.

The amended election law predicts that all processes around the next elections from registration to announcement of the elections results should be carried out with the help of technology and biometric system.  

“If they decide about the biometric process of the voters today, we will need six months for the process and it also requires that there is no political, technical and administrative problems on our way,” said Yusuf Rasheed, CEO of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

“Government does not want transparent elections, because members of the commission need at least one year to learn the election curriculum considering the amendment we have in the election law, the short period of time we have, and the change in the leadership of the commission,” said Daud Ali Najafi, former head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Commission.

But the Independent Election Commission’s deputy spokesman Zabihullah Sadat sad a consultative meeting will be convened with civil society institutions and political parties about finalizing a new election timeline.

“The election commission’s leadership is working on the reforms agenda so that these reforms are put into practice and then share the final timeline with the people,” Sadat said.

Government leaders have said in different occasions that the next presidential elections will be held according to the timeline on 20 of July.