KABUL - On the second day of its open review process, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) on Monday began inspection of challenges from Provincial Council candidates who were disqualified.
While the bulk of the ECC's two-week review process, which began on Sunday, will be evaluating complaints against candidates filed by the public, another aspect of it will be assessing challenges from Presidential and Provincial Council hopefuls that were deemed ineligible by the Independent Election Commission (IEC). And given the uproar the IEC's announcement of qualifications received two weeks ago, it is likely that aspect of the ECC's process may be more significant than expected.
The first day of the review, which is being conducted in front of media, civil society, human rights and political party representatives, saw challenges from the 17 Presidential candidates who were cut by the IEC reviewed by the ECC. Complaints officials said decisions would be publicized within a week.
Monday, the second day of review, saw the ECC shift its focus to challenges from Provincial Council candidates who didn't make the IEC's preliminary list. Reportedly challenges from candidates of Logar, Wardak and Kabul provinces were heard.
According to election officials, 3,503 people including 323 women filed nominations for the Provincial Council elections in April. But only 2,704 total, and 308 women, made the IEC's preliminary list.
Those disqualified have publically denounced the IEC's decisions, maintaining that their filings were completed as required. Many of the eliminated nominees were said to have failed to properly meet the number of supporting voter cards that were required.
"The IEC announced that most of our voter cards were fake, but if these cards were fake then upcoming election will not be legitimate," said Muhibullah Reha, one of the disqualified Provincial candidates.
Other would-be candidates took aim at those who did make the IEC's cut.
"We have documents that prove most of those who qualified are illiterate while the commission removed our names without any reason," said Abdul Wali Qazizada, another disqualified Provincial candidate.
After the IEC came under heavy fire in recent weeks for not conducting its initial vetting process for nominations transparently, the ECC has been careful to not repeat the same mistake. The Complaints Commission announced only a couple days before it began its review that it would open its doors to the media and other relevant observers.
"I believe that the reviewing process of complaints against candidates is important for the election's transparency," said Abdul Sattar Sadat, the head of the ECC. "We will independently review all the complaints."
Nevertheless, it appears the ECC might have already mis-stepped in the eyes of civil society activists. Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) representatives on Monday criticized the Complaints Commission for not allowing sufficient time to disqualified candidates to make their case for why they should be readmitted into the race.
The ECC is not the only body that will be involved in the complaints review process, however. According to procedure, any complaints related to human rights violations are to be forwarded on to judicial bodies for investigation.
Of the 650 complaints against candidates ECC officials have reportedly registered at their office in Kabul, 27 of them are against Presidential hopefuls. Officials declined to offer any more details about the nature or targets of complaints. (Tolo News)