Kabul - Officials of the United National Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAM) have pronounced 2014 presidential and provincial councils’ elections a destiny making process to the war-devastated nation and has urged successful holding of the upcoming elections also provide clarity to international financial and moral cooperation to the country beyond 2014 when the foreign troops set to evacuate the country after a decade long combat against international terrorism and militancy.
A high ranking official from the UNAMA and UN Secretary General Special Envoy who also deals the UN cooperation to Afghanistan Nicolas Heism has warned any fraud and illegitimacy in the polling could harm international cooperation to Afghanistan after 2014 and the UN assistance could be overshadowed which will leave damaging consequences on the country.
The assertions comes at a time that Afghanistan prepares to conduct two major events in its recent history that include holding of presidential elections and completion of the security transition process from international forces to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The security transition process will put major responsibilities on shoulders of the Afghan forces and they will have to provide nationwide security, secondly Afghanistan will also witness the first peaceful transition of political power from one elected president to another. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said that expressed satisfactions over the political commitments and technical preparation which have been undertaken by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC).
UNAMA has also highlighted access of the people to the election centers in some cold and remote regions including northern Badakhshan province and some regions in the central parts of Afghanistan, but has urged that the elections should be conducted as per schedule on 5th April 2014. The UNAMA has assured to fully monitor the electoral process so that transparent and legitimacy of the polling is ensured. In the meantime, the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) has said that it warmly welcome monitoring of the elections by national and international institutions, but expressed distress that access of the election observers in the insecurity regions could be challenging and it wouldn’t be applicable to supervise the elections across the country.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said that the Afghan security forces are on alert to provide effective security coverage to the upcoming elections. The UNAMA has further stated that the elections should be conducted in democratic manner and all political movements and people should be facilitated to compete in the elections through democratic system and people should be supported to cast their ballots under peaceful environment and mark the destiny of their motherland. (BNA)