Stamping voters’ identity cards has turned into a tough issue as on Saturday a number of members of parliament blasted the Presidential Palace (ARG) over what they said was interference in the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) affairs. 

The MPs said the Presidential Palace interferes in the IEC’s affairs and has put pressure on the commission to accept the plan to stamp a copy of voters’ ID cards, and not the original one. 

On Thursday, the Presidential Palace said that the IEC will not stamp original ID cards due to security issues, and instead will stamp the copies. 

IEC however remained silent and no commissioner commented on the issue. Later, however, the IEC wrote on its website that the plan has been accepted. 

Sources meanwhile said first the plan was rejected by the IEC, but on Thursday afternoon President Ashraf Ghani called IEC commissioners to the Presidential Palace and in a controversial meeting ordered them to accept the plan. 

Sources said a number of commissioners were against the plan. 

A number of MPs said the Presidential Palace has imposed its view on the IEC in this regard. 

“If the election commission today decide that they will stamp the ID cards copies, or the view (of the Presidential Palace) gets imposed on them, it means that the elections will be full of fraud and now I tell you that it will not be elections, but will be appointments,” MP Abdul Qadir Zazai Watandost said. 

The Presidential Palace meanwhile said Ghani has ordered that no one should interfere in the IEC’s affairs.

“President has clearly ordered that no official, including himself, should interfere in election commission affairs. In the meeting that was held in the Presidential Palace, the government leadership, ambassadors of the donor countries, election commission members and security officials had attended and discussed holding elections and taking preparations in this regard,” president deputy spokesman Dawa Khan Minapal said. 

The institutions overseeing the election process meanwhile said the new scheme will provide grounds for election fraud. According to them, a number of commissioners are against the issue, but the IEC on its website has said the new scheme is accepted by the commission. 

The institutions said if the original ID cards are not stamped, then a number of challenges including voting twice by the same voters and problems in differentiating fake and original ID cards will happen on the election day. 

“Based on the information that we have received, the election commissioners seriously disagree over the issue. The new scheme has been published on the IEC website, but most of the IEC commissioners are against the decision. They failed to agree on a decision and that is why they have not shared their stance with people through media,” Sughra Sadat, spokeswoman for Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan said. 

“We are worried about this and expect challenges in this regard and it is possible that election fraud happens,” Yusuf Rasheed, executive director of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan said. 

The institution overseeing the election process also said article 19 of the Independent Election Commission Law says that the IEC during the election process does not have the authority to create and prepare alternative executive approaches if the previous one does not work.

So far no one from the election commission has commented on the issue.