KABUL - Office of the Chief Executive of National Unity Government on Wednesday said that the CEO has laid down a new roll out plan for electronic ID cards.
This comes amid national outrage and international pressure over constant delays that have overshadowed the rollout.
Ethnicity and other necessary information of the holder will be included in e-NIC under the new plan, the CEO's office said Wednesday, giving no further details about the date of the rollout.
The new development comes at a critical juncture when pressure has mounted on government both nationally and internationally over constant delays.
The e-NIC rollout hit deadlocks when certain ethnicities in Afghanistan criticized the government for not adding ethnicity on the cards, but the CEO's office is apparently trying to resolve the issue and make sure the rollout happens under new criteria.
"Alongside the ID cards, an extra information checklist will be provided to the holder in order to meet concerns over cast or ethnicity," said Jawed Faisal, deputy spokesman to CEO Abdullah Abdullah.
It is said that e-NIC will be a milestone in ensuring transparent elections in the country in future and that it will help track the infiltration of terrorists.
"As long as the national unity government delays the e-NIC rollout, this will pose threats to not only the parliamentary elections but also to presidential elections," said Yousaf Rashid, head of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).
The e-NIC department in recent months let go hundreds of its employees after donors withdrew financial assistance following constant deadlocks over the process.
On Wednesday, some former employees of e-NIC department staged a protest in Kabul to express their outrage over the recruitment of new employees in the department.
"Thousands of dollars were spent on each employee; these employees are educated and experienced," one of the protestors Assadullah Azizi said.
"They promised us that if they rehire, they will take those who are former employees, but now procurements are conducted on the basis of nepotism and they want to recruit their relatives," said former e-NIC employee Ali Rahman.
Implementing the necessary reforms in Afghanistan's election law and ensuring the rollout of electronic ID cards were among two key promises made by government, but two years after the establishment of the NUG, politics still holds back the e-NIC progress.(Tolonews)