This paper had warned of incapability of Independent Election Commission (IEC) against electoral frauds long before the election was held. The concern was based on the fact that many people, on the direction of certain political groups, had obtained multiple voting cards from IEC voters’ registrations centers. Reportedly, IEC officials working at these centers issued voting cards to scores of individuals that had not even completed the legal age for voting. Also, a bulk of duplicate voting cards had been printed. Who knows what quantity of millions of fake voting cards was used in last week’s election?

Although the recent presidential election is being conceived freer, fairer and more transparent than that of 2009, incidents of significant frauds have been reported from certain provinces of Afghanistan. The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has received more than 3,100 election-related complaints.

A number of video clips captured by mobile phones, all showing incidents of electoral frauds, are circulating on the social media. Some of these videos clearly portrays individuals possessing bunches of ballot papers, ballot boxes and stamps of the IEC. They are shown marking these ballots in favor of a particular candidate.

In one clip that has gone viral among Afghan users of the social media, Latifa Saeedi, member of Takhar provincial council is shown directing female voters to vote for candidate of her choice at a polling station in Takhar. In the video a female election observer and a woman wearing burqa accuse Latifa for slapping them for protesting her illegal presence inside the polling station and for not supporting her favorite candidate.

The greatest shortcoming of IEC on the Election Day was that many polling stations in provinces like Kabul, Ghazni, Herat, Balkh, Badakhshan etc. ran out of ballot papers. This caused tens of thousands of people to remain deprived of voting. A picture on the internet shows a young voter burning his voting card in protest to shortage of ballots.

Now it is much clear where all those ballots have gone. It seems that certain groups who had sympathizers among IEC officials transferred the ballot papers to location of their choice and used them in favor of their own favorite presidential candidate.

Frauds have taken place and there are many evidences available publically to prove it. Now, the ball is ECC’s court. It must thoroughly investigate incidents of electoral frauds and other serious irregularities like shortage of ballot papers. Ballot papers that have been misused must be identified and declared void. Meanwhile, individuals including IEC officials who have been involved in electoral frauds must be punished in accordance with judicial system of the country.