With the second and final round of presidential elections approaching slowly, fears and reservations are also increasing. The reason that results of the first round took so long was due to the numerous allegations of poll-rigging and other illegal practices in the electoral process. It is quite understandable that none of these illegal practices could have been successful unless supported by the members and employees of the Independent Election Commission. In all the cases of mass poll-rigging when large number of ballot boxes and ballot paper were stolen and later on filled according to the wishes of a specific person, the role of members of the commission was undeniably doubtful and non-professional. Realizing this fact, more than 3300 members of the election commission have been dismissed who were found to be involved in fraud in the first round of polls. The election commission has also issued a notice to all its employees to remain neutral and if they were found involved in any kind of illegal activity, they would be terminated from their jobs

The news about the alleged interference of Afghanistan’s neighbors in the upcoming second round of elections is also circulating in the media. Some members of the upper house of parliament or Mashrano Jirga accused Pakistan and Iran of meddling in the second round of presidential elections. A senator representing the south-western Paktia province told the upper house that Pakistan had distributed money to some people in remote areas of the country to create disturbance during the elections runoff. However, the Member of Parliament was not able to provide any tangible evidence in this regard.

Independent Election Commission also issued a warning to the forerunners of second round to abide by the electoral conduct and avoid using ethnic divides in their election campaign. It has been reported that both the presidential candidates had mentioned and tried to manipulate the ethnic backgrounds for winning the votes of specific ethnic groups and in this way, threatened the overall solidarity of the country.

In this regard, the on-going tripartite meeting between the military heads of Afghanistan and Pakistan and also joined by AISAF is of extreme importance as security is going to be one of the prime concerns in the elections runoff. Although Taliban and other militants failed to derail the first round of elections but very recently, the increasing militancy has also increased concerns about the security of the elections and has manifold increased the responsibility and vigilance of our security forces.

Until these serious concerns are not dealt with properly, there may be similar frustration and uncertainty that emerged after the first round of elections.