IEC sets parliamentary elections date a year back

Independent Election Commission (IEC) has recommended two dates for holding the upcoming Parliamentary elections to the Presidential Office.

“IEC has determined the 07 May 2016 and 17 September 2016 as the days in which the parliamentary elections can be held”, Azizullah Bakhtyari, a commissioner for the IEC has said.

According to the Afghan constitution the Afghan Parliament’s term is set to expire on Sunday.

Afghan Constitution says,” The work period of the House of People shall terminate, after the disclosure of the results of the elections, on the 1^st of Saratan of the fifth year and the new parliament shall commence work”.

Afghan parliamentary election was supposed to be held 30-60 days prior to the expiration of the term of the House of People, but now only one day has left for termination of the House of People work period.

Earlier, President Ghani’s Office issued a decree on Friday to extend Parliament’s term until elections could be held, and that a date for those elections would be announced within a month.

But some MPs criticized the declaration of the President on the extension of Parliament tenure until the announce of the upcoming elections results on Saturday session and called it against the Constitution while most of the lawmakers unanimously accepted to continue their work.