Reforms in Electoral Law, Electoral Systems required: FEFA

Electoral watch organizations and civil society activists believe if the government does not bring reforms in electoral commissions leadership, people will lose their trust in democracy and the upcoming parliamentary elections will face with new challenges.

Free & Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan Organization (FEFAo) had organized consultation meetings with provincial council candidates, members of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), political parties, electoral commission’s representatives, women and youth groups in 8 regions in Afghanistan.

Mohammad Nayeem Asghari, FEFA program manager said that our findings show that most of Afghans would like to bring reforms in electoral system and the government must bring short and long term reforms in electoral commissions otherwise we will witness a weak participation of the people in polling stations.

In addition, a number of CSOs believe that weak administration of electoral commissions resulted to face with challenges in 2014 presidential and provincial elections.

Partaw Naderi, a member of the civil society said,” currently there is incapability to manage elections and it is a huge responsibility weighing too much on the current electoral commission shoulders, I think a great national value has been hurt somehow in Afghanistan, and the government has a duty to deal with this issue.”

After a disputable election the National Unity Government decided to form a commission to bring reforms in electoral law and electoral system, but no practical action has been taken so far by the government yet.