IEC to Hold Trial Presidential Election

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) intends to hold a trial presidential election in one part of the country before the upcoming polling day on September 28^th.

According to the officials, the trial election will be to recognize the probable challenges and plans in terms of sending the results from local polling stations to center online in the polling day.

“The trial election will take place either in Kabul or in one of the provinces,” said Habiburrahman Nang, Secretary Chief of the IEC.

The officials say that that the main focus of the trial election will be on the areas where the 2018 parliamentary election had faced many challenges like lack of the biometric devices’ operation.

However, they want to solve similar problems in the upcoming election.

“If the commission continues working like this, it cannot hold an acceptable election,” said Naiem Asghari, Programs Director of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).

Though IEC reports that it is prepared for holding the election, the electoral observers say that they are not aware of the IEC programs and plans including the voters’ list.

“We are not aware of the process,” said Naiem Ayoubzada, Chief of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

This comes as a number of the presidential candidates have no begun their electoral campaigns yet as it is not clear wither the election will be held or the peace agreement will be prioritized than the election.