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CE Abdullah Criticizes IEC’s Shortcomings in Election
The Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah has criticized the Independent Election Commission (IEC)’s shortcomings in election and accepted that some of the people were deprived of their voting rights.
“There is no justification for the repetition of failures, and clear answers should be given to the people,” Abdullah said.
The chairman of IEC, Abdul Badi Sayad accepts the shortcomings but vows to investigate the mishandling of the weekend’s problem-plagued legislative ballot.
“We have assigned a commission to investigate the mismanagement and violations, including the late opening of the centers and use of biometric devices,” Sayyad told reporters on Monday.
“Anyone who has neglected or is involved in shortcomings will be punished.”
Balloting started on Saturday as the IEC initially planned to hold the polls in one day, but the IEC officials extended the voting to Sunday as scores of polling centers were not open or run on Saturday after long delays due to militants’ attacks, irregularities, and low attendance of election workers.
The elections covered 32 out of the country’s 34 provinces. Voting in Kandahar and Ghazni provinces has been postponed due to security reasons.
Meanwhile, a number of political parties’ representatives also criticized the election process, saying the voting centers in some areas have been deliberately closed to people.
“The votes of those centers that did not use the biometric system should be announced invalid. We will wait up to the next two days for a complete report,” Noorul Rahman Akhlaqi, a member of Jamiat Islami Leadership Council said.
Muhammad Nateqi, the deputy of Afghanistan Wahdat-e Mili party added, “They planned to organize fraud and irregularities with indicating that the biometric system is not working.”
More than 2,500 candidates are contesting for the Wolesi Jirga or the 249-seat lower house of the parliament.
Most of the candidates stand independently as the country did not have many regular and standard political parties.
Nearly nine million voters, out of 12 million eligible Afghans, were registered to take part in the process and elect their lawmakers for a five-year term.
However, only over four million Afghans, with 33 percent of them women, cast their ballots during the two-day elections due to Taliban intimidation and security threats.
Pakistan’s government on Friday extended the stay of Afghan refugees in the country till June 30, amid repatriation of illegal foreign nationals.
There are around 1.3 million registered Afghans living in Pakistan, according to a spokesman for UN refugee agency UNHCR in Islamabad, Dawn newspaper reported.
“On the recommendation of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the federal cabinet approved the extension of the validity of PoR cards of Afghan refugees from April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024,” said an official statement, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PoR cardholders will be repatriated in the third phase of the plan that will begin after the repatriation of “illegal foreign nationals” residing in Pakistan is completed, the statement added.
The PoR card holders avail schools, bank accounts and other facilities in Pakistan.
Repatriation of undocumented refugees began on November 1 and continues. More than 500,000 Afghans have been expelled so far.
John Bass, US acting under secretary of state for political affairs, will travel to Qatar and Pakistan April 26-30, US State Department announced on Friday.
In Doha, Qatar, he will meet with senior Qatari government officials and other diplomatic missions to discuss support for Afghanistan and shared security interests in the region, US State Department said in a statement.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, Under Secretary Bass will meet with senior Pakistani government officials to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues as part of the U.S.-Pakistani partnership, the statement added.
John Bass served as US ambassador to Afghanistan under Donald Trump administration between December 2017 and January 2020.
A tripartite meeting between the delegations of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was held in Kabul with the aim of connecting North Asia to South Asia and reducing transit and transportation costs among these three countries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said in a statement.
In this meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint technical committee to continue the talks.
This tripartite meeting was held under the leadership of Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Turkmenistan and Srik Zhumangarin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Earlier, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation of the Islamic Emirate and Turkmenistan. The ministry of commerce said the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a large joint logistics center in Torghondi, the trilateral transit agreement between the IEA, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the expansion of Afghanistan’s railway, solving issues related to Afghan transit and export goods, and a number of other commercial issues.
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