Issues related to election remain unaddressed. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has delayed the voter registration process. The quagmire on elections complaint body remains unresolved. Despite the deadline getting closer, the Government seems to be not paying much heed on demands of political parties and the international community.

All opposition parties have strongly demanded that Election Complaints Commission be reinstated and continue its work. The Government’s proposed establishment of judicial commission is sure to cause disputes and crisis.

Recently the UNAMA head Mr. Kubis also insisted on the issue saying elections complaints adjudicating mechanism should be truly independent and credible. Though using indirect language, but in clear words the government has been told that international community wants a transparent, credible and accountable process to fund. He said, “We [the UN] noted that civil society and political parties have expressed their concerns with regards to the creation of special courts. And they expressed themselves more in favor of an independent elections complaint commission. We hope that these signals coming from those that are stakeholders in the election will be heard.”

The government needs to take the domestic demands and calls from international community into account and abandon the idea of judicial tribunals for electoral disputes. The independent body of the complaints commission is better mechanism in our circumstances and should continue, as all opposition groups have expressed concerns in this regard.

Similarly, the calls on voter registration process should also be paid attention. The 22-party Council of Opposition Groups has accused that the government is not in position to control fraud and vote rigging in the presidential polls with the plan of using old voter registration cards.

IEC Chief Manawi had earlier said the presidential election in 2014 will not be transparent if the older voter registration cards are used. The old cards of the previous voter registration can be bought at cheap prices all over the country. There were over 17 million of them, while the number of actual eligible voters for this year is about 15 million. Rigging would be unavoidable with the old lists. The fraud machinery could actually hijack the election results through ghost voters.

These concerns must be paid attention to with a decision acceptable for all. The Government will create crisis with going solo on these issues. A smooth transfer of power in 2014 in Kabul through a free, fair and transparent election is the turning point for Afghanistan to continue its journey towards stability under the post-2001 setup.