The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has not yet recruited provincial electoral chiefs and short term employees for the upcoming elections.

The presidential election which has been postponed by two months will be held on Sept 28 as authorities try to iron out problems with the voting process.

The IEC was expected to hire permanent and short term employees for the upcoming presidential and provincial council elections. But it has not yet managed to have provincial election chiefs and short term employees.

“A special plan has been prepared between the election commission and administrative reforms commission and employees will be recruited for both electoral commissions. We have approved this plan and sent it to the administrative reforms commission,” said Mawlana Abdullah, a member of the IEC.

The election commission has estimated that $192 million is required for the presidential, provincial councils, district councils and Ghazni parliamentary elections which all will be held on the same day.

Election commentators said that the IEC does not have the budget yet and that lacks the experience to hire its employees.  

“These two issues have caused the IEC to fail to recruit employees,” said Daoud Ali Najafi, former head of IEC Secretariat.

It comes as Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) is expected to finalize the assessment of complaints about parliamentary elections in Nangarhar, Takhar and Kunduz provinces in coming days and refer it to the IEC.