IEC Chief Secretariat Accused of Favoring Ghani’s Team

Presidential candidate Faramarz Tamanna on Wednesday accused the operational and technical chief of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), appointed by President Ashraf Ghani through a decree, for working in favor of Ashraf Ghani’s State-Builder electoral ticket.

In addition, Mr. Tamanna who is leading the “Wisdom and Development” electoral ticket warned of consequences if the situation is not controlled.

“IEC Chief Secretariat must be prevented to commit systematic fraud; otherwise, myself and other presidential candidates will have serious reactions,” Mr. Tamana said.

However, Habib-ul-Rahman Nang, the Chief of IEC Secretariat rejected the allegations of Mr. Tamanna and said the president appointed him after he was endorsed by all presidential candidates in the palace.

“I came through a clear process. I was among the nominees from the civil society and presented my plan while candidates were selecting the commissioners and I won eight votes,” Mr. Nang said.

He also asked all candidates to file their complaints with the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) if they have any documents about fraud in the IEC’s secretariat.

This comes as the national tally center of the IEC officially started its functions on Tuesday and so far more than 15,000 result sheets from Panjshir, Kapisa, Parwan, and Kabul provinces have been entered in the data center of the commission.

Afghanistan’s presidential election was hold on September 28 despite of Taliban’s repeated threats.