KABUL - Two election oversight institutes on Saturday said giving voter cards to underage people and using fake identity cards during the voter registration drive posed main challenge to the upcoming presidential ballot .
The voter registration process ended on June 29 in 33 provinces except Ghazni after registration of more than 447,000 new voters .
Election watchdogs Free Watch Afghanistan (FWA) and Election and Transparency Watch Organization of Afghanistan (ETWA) today held a joint press conference here and shared with media the results of their observation of the voter registration process .
The two institutions interviewed 40 political parties’ representatives about problems and their concerns about the voter registration process in 22 provinces of the country .
Mobinullah Imaq, FWA head, told the conference that their observation showed there were some problems in the voter registration process such as registration of voters under 18 years of age, usage of fake ID cards, lack of awareness about biometric devices’ usage and lack of transparency in general in the process .
He called problems in the voter registration process ‘a main challenge’ to the presidential election .
The presidential election is scheduled for September 28 .
Imaq said 17 of the interviewees said they had seen under age people obtaining voter cards while 25 other respondents claimed witnessing the usage of fake ID cards in the voter registration process .He said 19 of the respondents said that election workers did not honor their neutrality in the voter registration process .
Suggestions :
Habibullah Shinwari, head of ETWA, said that the Independent Election Commission (IEC) should share the results of the voter registration process on its website with all needed details. He said current statistics of the voters were not credible .
He said the IEC should also provide information in detail about the voter registration centers open or closed in specific areas for specific times and the reasons they were let open for longer or shorter times .
The two institutes asked the media to keep balance in covering electioneering of each candidate. The media should also provide investigative reports related to election . (Pajhwok)