Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish on Sunday said government will soon resolve the issues currently facing Afghanistan’s election management bodies. 
 
Meanwhile, former chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Fazel Ahmad Manavi has accused President Ashraf Ghani of violating the law that he approved himself. 
 
Election monitoring groups have also said that government is pursuing its own political ambitions in the appointment of the new chairman of the IEC.
 
This comes after the dismissal of the head of the IEC by the president; the uncertainty around the future of the head of the secretariat of the election commission, and differences between the electoral complaints commission that have led to major concerns among the people. 
 
“Problems around elections will be resolved in the near future, major national and regional projects are expected to be implemented including the rolling out process of electronic identity cards in the near future,” said Danish.
 
But critics say that government does not have the will to bring reforms in the election commissions, and that the Presidential Palace is seeking to manipulate next year’s parliamentary and district council elections. 
 
“He (Ghani) is disregarding his own legislative decree. The commission cannot implement its legal authorities despite having the authority to select its own chief, but they wait for the president to pick someone as their chief,” said Manavi.
 
Although government was supposed to appoint the new chairman of the IEC a week after the dismissal of the former chief, election observers and monitoring groups say that government is deliberately delaying the process as it pursues its own political objectives.
 
“If the government intentionally or unintentionally does not appoint one member of the commission, members of the commissions are also not doing their jobs which have been defined by the law; but the law states that the lack of one member should not affect their working process,” said Jandad Spinghar, chairman of the Afghan society election network. 
 
Meanwhile a number of residents have said that government needs to undertake necessary reforms in the election commissions to ensure that the public trust in the electoral process is restored.
 
“The government has forgotten the (past) elections,” said Dur Mohammad Watandost, a resident of Kabul. 
 
“People are no longer interested to vote, government needs to bring reforms so that the people vote,” said another resident Zabiullah.
 
“Nothing has been done for elections so far,” said another Kabul resident, Sediqullah.
 
Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah had pledged to bring about systematic reforms in Afghanistan’s election system. But critics say that the two officials have not delivered on their promise so far.