KABUL - Shah Sultan Akifi, chairman of the Electoral Reform Commission (ERC) Thursday blasted the Afghan lawmakers for pursuing personal agendas in the election reform process
His accusations come only a few weeks after parliament, for a second time, rejected a presidential decree on election reforms, sparking strong reactions from the critics and monitoring groups.
President's legislative decree on election reform is in place, said Akifi. The government now has the authority to implement the reform process on the basis of the decree.
He said that the lawmakers have been sabotaging the reform process to extend their tenure as MPs
"I think members of the house of representatives are exploiting the delay of the reform process. Sometimes people prefer their personal motives over national interests. I don't see any reason to delay the legislative decree," said ERC chief Akifi.
The parliament is now preparing for the summer recess, resulting in an increase of calls on the joint parliamentary commission to start work as soon as possible to finalize the legislative decree.
"The government must be cautious about the challenges created for it by the commissioners of the election commission. These commissioners do not want the reform process to be implemented, because of their personal interests," MP Mohammad Abdoh said.
"There are several options. The first is to wait for the summer recess to end. The second option is to issue the legislative decree to implement the election reform process. The third option is to refer the matter to the special commission overseeing implementation of the constitution or the Supreme Court," said Mohammad Natiqi, chief other commission overseeing implementation of the political agreement.
Despite controversies, the ERC chief says that the president's legislative decree is already in place.
"The legislative decree of the president of Afghanistan already has implementation status. I think it was even better if the selection committee had started its work on the basis of presidential order and article 79 of the constitution of Afghanistan instead of postponing its work," Akifi added.
If the presidential legislative decree was already in place, what else hindering the process, critics have asked.(Tolonews)