KABUL - Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday held consultative meeting with different groups of people in order to provide a credible environment for the conduct of upcoming Wolesi Jirga and district council elections.

IEC held its first consultative meeting with representatives of political parties in the capital Kabul today. The meeting talked about different issues including minimizing election constituencies. The IEC also discussed its future development programmes with the participants.

IEC chief, Najibullah Ahmadzai, who attended the meeting, said that political parties were the important part of election processes because they were present in all phases of elections.
“We are trying to hold fair, transparent and free of fraud elections as well as restore public trust on the election process by consulting with political parties and civil society organisations,” he said.

There are around 7,000 voting centers placed in residential buildings in all over Afghanistan but the IEC is working on a plan to provide proper locations for the voting centers so people can easily access them, Ahmadzai added.

He said 21 million voter cards have so far distributed and the IEC was responsible to provide a new list of people eligible to vote and avoid distribution of extra voter cards.

An IEC commissioner, Maazullah Dawlati, said that distribution of voter cards process was faced with problems over the past one decade as a number of them were distributed based on invalid documents that paved the way for fraud.

Abbas Basir, representative of Hizb-I-Wahdat Islami party, in the sidelines of the meeting, told Pajhwok Afghan News that election transparency could not be ensured with slogans.
“We worry that changing the location of polling stations and the election system to single seat would pave the way for more interference, we are doubtful about the future of elections,” he said.

Basir called political parties’ oversight on election processes weak in the past and said if the IEC gave more role to parties, political groups and candidates in overseeing election process it would somehow ensure transparency.
Calling security another important condition for the election, he said that the election would be more transparent if the list of all voters were available. (Pajhwok)