14 Candidates Removed from Parliamentary Elections List

The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) delisted 14 new names from its parliamentary elections list

Officials in ECC say these candidates from Kabul and other provinces were delisted for not resigning from their governmental posts in a timely manner.

These officials say, according to the article 13 of the elections law, one of the conditions to nominate for the parliamentary elections is to resign from governmental posts before certain deadline.

"The Electoral Complaints Commission decided that 14 candidates do not have the right to run for elections since they did not resign from their governmental positions," Ahmad Zia Rafat, a spokesman for ECC told reporters.

ECC had previously delisted 25 other parliamentary elections candidates for not resigning from their governmental posts.

"The documents of some other candidates for the parliamentary elections suspected for not having resigned from their governmental posts are under investigation and the results will be announced in a few days," Mr Rafat added.

Meanwhile, some delisted candidates criticise the Electoral Complaints Commission and the Independent Elections Commission for not acting transparently and say that they have resigned from their governmental posts already.

"I was delisted because I am an academic. If I had guns and rockets, or if I were related to irresponsible armed groups, or to any power holder or a murderer and criminal, I would not have been delisted now," General Aminullah Amarkhil, a delisted candidate told TOLOnews reporter.

ECC has so far removed the names of around 76 parliamentary elections candidates from its list.