KABUL - Sharifi Balkhabi, chairman of parliament's legal and judicial commission, on Friday reported that despite opposition among lawmakers over President Ashraf Ghani's legislative decree on election reforms, lawmakers in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) will vote Saturday (Today) on the decree.
Amid strident criticism over the constant delays in approving the decree by the lower house, election monitoring groups have been pushing government to step up efforts to convince lawmakers to endorse the crucial decree.
As hopes for the approval of the legislative decree on electoral reforms gathers fresh momentum, concerns however still exist over the opposition of some lawmakers who still push for the rejection of the decree.
"In the first session, there were serious disagreements over issues and the articles, but we are hopeful that God willing the decree will be endorsed despite there being deliberate efforts to hinder the approval of the decree," Balkhabi said.
Election monitoring groups have labeled the finalization of the president's decree an important test for the NUG, a decree which is said could break the deadlock that is currently hindering the electoral reforms.
"Some of our colleagues push the decree to be rejected. But I personally believe that if the decree is endorsed with a number of amendments, it will be in the interests of the country," MP Farooq Majroh said.
"Our expectation is that with the approval of the decree the ground is paved for holding the parliamentary and district council elections. The lawmakers should vote in favor of the decree in line with the national interests of the country," Balkhabi added.
Amid controversy, reports have surfaced that the president struggled till the last minute to convince the lawmakers to approve the decree. However, Saturday's voting will prove whether these efforts were effective.‎
"The government wants to justify its negligence, incompetence and weakness and it tries to put its responsibility on parliament, because of this some of the lawmakers oppose the decree," Balkhabi further said.
The statement comes a week after Ghani's second VP Sarwar Danish told lawmakers in a parliament speech that the international donors have linked their continued financial cooperation to Afghanistan to implementation of reforms in Afghanistan's election system and that the government must attend the Warsaw Summit on Afghanistan with an achievement.(Tolonews)