Political parties have strongly reacted on the remarks of the Chief of Independent Election Commission Fazal Ahmad Manawi who had said the upcoming presidential elections would be conducted according to the Presidential Decree due to the delay in approval of the Elections Law from parliament.

Members of the National Front, the National Coalition, and the Right and Justice Party condemned the remarks saying if the elections are held under the Presidential Legislative Decree, transparency of the polls would be undermined. They urged the IEC to take all possible steps to implement the Elections Law.  They added that previous fraudulent practices would be repeated if the same decree was used for holding the Presidential elections. There are nine months to the polling day and the IEC should be able to implement the law, they further said.  "If the elections are held according to the Legislative Decree, transparency in the election goes out of the window. There is enough time to implement the Laws, and the IEC should not compromise its independence by using the Legislative Decree," said a leader of the coalition of political parties.

IEC Chief Manawi had said on Saturday that the National Assembly has delayed approval of the election laws for long enough that now it cannot be implemented due to late approval. The Law on the Independent Election Commission and Election Law are almost approved from the National Assembly, but IEC says there is no time to implement the laws accordingly. Manawi said "with approval of the laws delayed, the Commission worked necessarily by the legislative decree of the president, and now if the law is approved, the time for its implementation is not enough. We will go through election by this decree, there is no other way."

The EU Special Representative to Afghanistan has also called for early approval and enactment of laws on the IEC structure and presidential elections. In a statement they say It’s critical that without further delay, and prior to the parliamentary recess, both IEC Structure Law and the Electoral Law are approved and enacted. ”

The blame indeed goes to the parliament—particularly the Senate—for taking so long to discuss the electoral laws and delaying its approval. It was twice sent back by the President with amendments that were rejected by majority of MPs.  The parliament needs to urgently process the laws making it top priority. We believe the delay-tactic has been an intentional move for the same purpose of using Presidential decree for holding the elections—and it would certainly create crisis of transparency in the polls.