The Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) operational department has sent a letter to the IEC secretariat saying that it could not fully assess some polling centers. 

IEC operational chief said in the letter while most polling centers have been reassessed, in some provinces the voters still do not have equal access to polling centers. According to the letter, the assessments were carried out to create equal distances to the polling centers and help people to have easy access to the centers, but this was not achieved. 

Election commission secretary Abdul Badi Sayyad has meanwhile accepted that some problems in assessing the polling centers exist but said the latest assessment is not final. 

“If in some provinces people feel that new polling centers should be added, or have any complaints about the centers being removed by the election officials, they can register their complaints to the electoral complaints commission. After their complaints were registered, it is possible to bring some minor changes to polling centers. This was the primary assessment and after the (final) assessment, the complaints will be finalized,” said Sayyad. 

“Transparent and professional work was not done in the assessment of the polling centers. The reason is that the commission does not have the capacity to conduct a transparent assessment,” Naeem Ayubzada, head of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan said. 

The Election commission chairman’s seat has been vacant for a month and institutions overseeing election process say they do not believe that elections will be held based on its current schedule. 

“We face a lack of management in making decisions regarding the election and it can affect elections. This could even delay holding the election,” Yusuf Rasheed, director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said. 

The head of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, emphasized the need to conduct the upcoming elections based on the scheduled time. 

The Election commission was supposed to digitalize elections and hold the upcoming parliamentary election using technology. However, the commission on Saturday said they have prepared an outline based on which they will hold a paper-ballot election.