Shahla Haq, acting secretariat of the Independent Election commission (IEC), resigned from her post on Sunday night over the issue of stamping copies of ID cards. 

In her resignation letter to the IEC, Haq said the IEC chief’s decision to stamp copies of IDs of people who have registered to vote will pave the way for election fraud. 

Haq also said in her resignation letter that the plan is technically challenging and the decision is not practical. She said as such she does not want to carry on in her position as she feels electoral fraud will damage the credibility of the elections. 

Shahla Haq has worked for the IEC for more than a decade. 

The Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) deputies and two commissioners on Sunday told TOLOnews that the decision to stamp copies of voter ID cards is illegal and that they are against the move. 

The commissioners refused to talk on camera but said the decision was made by President Ashraf Ghani and IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad.

The commissioners said only Sayyad and another commissioner agreed to the decision, but they, the four commissioners, were opposed to the move.  

IEC operational deputy head Wasima Badghisi, IEC financial and administrative deputy head Mazaaullah Dawlati, and IEC commissioners Abdul Qadir Quraishi and Maliha Hassan are the four commissioners who oppose the IEC chief and Ghani’s new decision regarding the voter registration process. 

The four commissioners have signed a letter in which they said they are against the move. 

According to them, based on the election law the commission does not have the authority to shift or amend electoral approaches during the election process.

The commissioners said they have signed a letter in front of representatives of the United Nations in Kabul and Shahla Haq, acting secretariat of IEC to announce their disagreement over the decision to stamp copies of voters ID cards. 

The IEC Chief however refused to comment in this regard.

The issue of stamping copies of voters ID cards was first announced by the Presidential Palace last Thursday and then published on the election commission’s website.