25 Insecure Provinces, 25 Days ahead of Afghan Elections

Insecurity threatens Afghan parliamentary elections in 25 provinces, 25 days ahead of planned date for elections, IEC officials say

Afghanistan Independent Elections Commission (IEC) expressed concern over increasing insecurity in the country's 25 provinces, saying only 9 provinces are fully secured and ready for parliamentary elections to be held.

IEC has urged the Afghan government to tighten security in these provinces to provide conditions for holding the Afghan parliamentary elections that will be held on 18th of September this year.

"We have pledged to hold elections in those areas where security forces hold tight security," Muhammad Farid Afghanzai, head of IEC's foreign relations committee told TOLOnews.

Although according to IEC's figures, more than 900 polling centres will be closed in these provinces due to the lack of security, but the commission says they will increase the number of polling centres in the country's secure areas to ensure extensive participation of people in these elections.

"According to the commission's report, insecurity poses threats before the parliamentary elections in 25 provinces, except for 9 provinces," Afghanzai added.

The Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) says if no solutions are found to stop the challenges before the parliamentary elections, Afghans will lose their trust in the elections and will not have wide-scale participation.

"There is not only the security problem, but there is also the problem of government authorities' interference in this process, and the other problem is the lack of seriousness by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to prevent frauds," Jandad Spinghar, the executive chief of ECC told TOLOnews.

This is the second parliamentary elections to be held after Hamid Karzai came to power following the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.