The President has signed the election law into approval. It’s a single welcoming step towards conduction of free, fair and transparent elections. Despite the long intentional delay, there remained no more options for the tactic to still look genuine.
According to the new law, major changes include reduction of women representation in provincial, district and village councils to 20 percent. The earlier draft has suggested 25 percent. Another very unfortunate change which the President surprisingly approved is rejection of the single minority reserved parliamentary seat for Sikh and Hindu communities of the country. While the Kuchi reserved seats has been brought to seven—a number still far more than their actual population. The cancellation of reserved seat for Sikh and Hindus is a shameful decision that should have been rejected. Silence of media and the civil society organizations is questionable.
The Free and Fair Elections Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) has welcomed approval of the law saying it is a step forward toward legitimizing the poll panels and a positive approach toward transparency of the electoral process. “FEFA acknowledges the efforts made by members of parliament, civil society organizations, political parties and media in introducing appropriate recommendations for the improvement of the law.”
No major Afghan civil society organization or political groups have condemned the cancellation of reserved minority seat.
The Independent Election Commission has also announced it will review all programs as per the new law, implementing it in full. A committee including speakers of the National Assembly and Senate, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chairperson of the Independent Human Rights Commission and a member of any civil society organization, has been formed to nominate commissioners of the IEC and Electoral Complaints Commission.
On the other hand, the IEC seems to be making slow but steady progress in its initial preparation for polling. It says the second phase of voter registration process will start soon on the district level.
IEC Chief Fazal Ahmad Manawi has raised questions about how the structural procedure of the IEC and ECC administration working separately would affect the polling process—calling it a challenge for IEC.
He was referring to the changes in powers and authority of the ECC, which will have five members, without any foreigner as recommended earlier by majority of MPs, political parties and civil society. The ECC will announce final election results and can annul fraudulent votes. The law has five chapters and 35 articles.