The CEO’s office said on Thursday government has finalized the security outline for the election process and that the strategy will be implemented soon.  

According to the CEO’s deputy spokesman Jawed Faisal, some sections of the plan will be kept confidential and not shared with the public – but some details will be released.

He said the process to draw up the strategy started six months ago by security and defense departments and serious attention has been paid to security at polling centers, around the preparation of a voters list and around election day itself. 

“The outline has been finalized and mostly our focus is that on election day people can vote freely and in a secure environment,” said Faisal. 

A security source told TOLOnews that out of the 7,000 polling centers, 2,000 of them face high security threats and that operations need to be launched there. 

Afghan defense ministry meanwhile said they are fully prepared to implement the election security strategy. 

According to the defense ministry, this strategy will be implemented in three phases.

First, vulnerable polling stations will be identified and operations will be launched in these areas to remove any risks.

Secondly, more forces will be deployed at the polling centers that are high-risk stations and thirdly, the national army will support police where necessary, more supplies will be provided to them and if needed more forces will be stationed at high-risk polling stations.  

“We will use all our equipment to maintain security around elections. The security outline has three phases and all the parts will be implemented one after another - by election day,” defense ministry deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh said. 

Institutions overseeing election processes meanwhile said not only was it critical to maintain security around election day, but security around the entire process needs to be maintained in orderto ensure a transparent election. 

“Not only should election day security be maintained, but the security system should cover the security issues from voter registration through to candidate nominations, electoral campaigns, election day and the whole process,” Yusuf Rasheed, executive director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said.

The Independent Election Commission said recently that security was one of their main areas of concern. 

Reports indicate meanwhile that the election commission is set to start distributing voter registration papers to provinces and that securing this process was also seen as an area of concern.