IEC Accused of Registering Ghost Voters

The Independent Election Commission has announced the number of newly registered voters over 100,000 but electoral observers describe this figure as deceptive and inaccurate.

“IEC presents an imaginary number of registered voters. The commission has failed in this process, therefore, they want to pretend that they have succeeded,” said Habibullah Shinwari, member of a Kabul-based electoral monitoring organization.

The electoral observers say that the “imaginary voters” provides the opportunity for frauds in the upcoming presidential election.

“In fact, the IEC officials want the people not to vote so there is an opportunity for committing fraud,” said Abdul Aziz Aryaee, a former IEC official.

Recently, IEC began the voters’ registration process for the upcoming presidential election that will last for a period of twenty days.

The commission is expecting to register over 1.5 million voters.

However, Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, the deputy spokesperson for IEC says that the voters’ registration process will be extended in Ghazni province.

“The voters’ registration process will not be extended in other provinces except in Ghazni due to the closure of some of the registration centers because of security issues,” Ibrahimi said.

The voters’ registration process will end on the 29th of June.

This comes after IEC criticized for its failure to implement public awareness campaigns for the voter’s registration process.