KABUL - Some Meshrano Jirga members on Tuesday praised people’s massive participation in the lower house elections, but demanded separation of clean votes from fraudulent ones.
The upper house members also accused the Independent Election Commission (IEC) of poorly managing the elections.
The Wolesi Jirga elections held on October 20 and 21 in 32 of the country’s provinces except Ghazni and Kandahar provinces.
The IEC has said around four million people participated in the voting process across the county despite security threats and technical glitches.
Senator Gulalai Akbari from Badakhshan province told today’s session of the Meshrano Jirga that people hugely participated in the elections and Afghan forces proved their bravery in maintaining security.
However, he criticized IEC’s ‘mismanagement’ and said many people were deprived of voting due to lack of order.
The names some of voters were missing from voter lists while biometric system did not work in some polling stations, he said.
About the extension of elections to a second day, he said: “This decision paved the way for fraud and the IEC is now responsible to separate clean votes from the fraudulent ones,” he said.
He added people would not participate in the presidential elections if their trust was not restored and fraudulent figures not identified.
Nazar Mohammad Faqiri, another senator, also accused the IEC of failure and said despite huge spending; the commission was not able to properly manage the election process.
He said votes cast into ballot boxes without biometric verification should be invalidated.
Farhad Sakhi, a senator from Kabul, praised people’s participation in the voting process and said:“If clean votes are not separated from fraudulent ones, people in future would not participate in democratic processes.”
A number of other senators also praised huge participation of voters in the elections but complained about fraud and poor management.
Without naming anyone, some senators claimed that some government officials were involved in electoral fraud.
Mohammad Alam Ezdyar, first deputy chairman, asked the IEC to ensure justice in the elections and restore people’s trust.
He said if people’s trust was not restored, they would not participate in next presidential elections.
Haji Hazrat Ali a Wolesi Jirga candidate criticized the IEC at a press conference here and said most of the commission officers in the eastern region worked in favor specific candidates and he had documents to prove that.
He said he had shared his evidence with the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC).
About absence of voter lists in some polling stations and out of charge biometric devices, he said: “The commission has failed in managing the elections, the IEC is now responsible to find and investigate those involved in fraud.”
Abdul Baday Sayyad, the IEC chief, said that fraud cases would be seriously followed and fake votes would be invalidated.
About poor management of the IEC, he said: “The performance of a one-day worker should not be compared with the performance of permanent officials, problems existed and all complaints would be addressed.” (Pajhwok)