KABUL - Afghanistan’s IEC on Monday rejected the UN proposal of delaying the provincial councils and Ghazni parliamentary elections.
UN insists on holding the timely presidential elections.
According to a tweet, Tadamichi Yamamoto, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that “Critically important that credible Afghanistan Presidential elections take place on time this year.”
He further added that “The UN’s technical advice is that with only 4 months remaining to 28 Sept Presidential Election day there is a need for realism and urgent focus among all actors in the Afghan election process.”
However, Mr. Yamamoto stressed the independence of IEC regarding making decisions about the elections.
“The IEC decides on how many elections to hold. The UN provides technical guidance to it and respects its decisions, “said Mr. Yamamoto.
In addition, onn  May 12, Alice Wells, the U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs visited Kabul where she met with the IEC officials to discuss the ongoing preparations for the upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan.
The U.S. top diplomat recommended IEC officials to focus on the presidential elections on September 28. In addition, she urged electoral bodies to postpone the other two elections.
However, the IEC Chief Hawa Alam Nuristani has said that the provincial council elections should be held as scheduled in order to legitimatize the presidential election.
“In order to ensure overall, transparent, and legal presidential elections, there is a need to hold the provincial council elections as well,” said Ms. Nuristani.
At the same time, some presidential candidates insist that IEC has not the capacity of holding three elections at the same time.
The elections watch institutions, knows the suggestion made by U.S. Deputy of Foreign Affairs Ministry as an intervention in the work of IEC.
Yousuf Rashid, CEO of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan, said, “ the suggestion could be proposed by an expert; proposed by a political official, however, has a different message.”
This comes as IEC has assured to hold all the three elections concurrently on September 28. (ATN)