KABUL - Members of the lower house of the parliament on Saturday called for the accountability of the election commission chiefs, blaming them for making the electoral process controversial.

Evaluating the performance of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Independent Electoral Complaint Commission (IECC) and chalking out forms were on the Wolesi Jirga agenda for today’s session.

Muhammad Naeem Hameedzai, an MP from southern Kandahar province, noted that by delaying and disputing the electoral results, the commissions had violated the Constitution as well as the relevant law.

With corrupt and fraudulent election workers yet to be unmasked, the credibility and integrity of the polls had been put at stake, he argued. “In Kandahar, names of the candidates who were given votes by the people are not present on the assembly list. But the names of those involved in ballot-stuffing are there.”

Ahmad Shah Ramazan, his colleague from northern Balkh province, Ghulam Hussain Nasiri from central Wardak and Abdul Qayyum Sajjadi from Ghazni called for the removal of the commission chiefs. They stressed the need to revitalise this important institutions and restore their credibility. Accountability of the corrupt was crucial for this, they said.

Fauzia Kofi, a woman lawmaker from northeastern Badakhshan province, alleged the public had lost confidence in the electoral system. She believed computerised national identity cards would help stop rigging in the future.

Speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi also stressed transparency of future elections. Though, the IEC and IECC claimed to have organised the elections in the best possible way, reluctance of its chiefs to defend their claims in the parliament had made their claims less convincing, he said. (Pajhwok)