Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials said Saturday that the commissions goal is to register between five and seven million voters, but that they have printed 18 million stickers to use if the number of voters goes up.
In the voter registration process, the election commission pastes the stickers on the original ID cards of voters and on election day voters can only vote if they have the stickers on their ID cards.
While the institutions overseeing the election process say that printing 18 million stickers is questionable and provides the context for election fraud, the election commission said the stickers have been printed as a precaution.
"30,000 registration books have been printed and in every book 600 voters will be registered," IEC commissioner Sayed Hafizullah Hashemi said.
According to the election commission, 4.6 million voters have registered their names to vote of which 32 percent are women.
The institutions overseeing the election process said the printing of so many stickers is questionable and it will provide the grounds for election fraud.
"This can lead to election fraud. As in the past blank voting papers were sent to the provinces and polling stations, but there the papers were misused for fraud," Yusuf Rasheed, executive director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said.
In the meantime, three days ago the election commission presented the names of three candidates for the position of IEC head secretariat to the Presidential Palace, but the Presidential Palace has asked the IEC to send names of more applicants.
"The commission has been asked to in addition to the three candidates, add more eligible candidates to the list so we can select a competent person to the important position," the presidents deputy spokesman Shahhussain Murtazavi said.
An institution overseeing the election process said asking for more names by the Presidential Palace is illegal.
"They (Presidential Palace) are trying to appoint their own people in the election commission, especially in the operation section," Sughra Sadat, a spokesperson for Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan said.
"I think based on the law, the president has the right to ask for more candidates or can select from the list," IEC commissioner Sayed Hafizullah Hashemi said.
Watchdogs also criticized the election commission over the voter database. The database so far has not been activated and according to critics, the information and figures of voters will not be transparent and accurate without having an active voter database.
The election commission however said they have hired staff for the voter database input process and that it will be activated by next week and then they will start entering voter information.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/9993
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