Residents and local officials in Ghazni have called on the Afghan government and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to resolve the issues in the province around elections. 

According to local officials, at least 14 districts in the province are facing serious security threats and also 15 voter registration centers remain closed in the center of the province.

This comes just weeks after several residents in Ghazni closed the office of the election commission in Ghazni and called on the election commission to organize the polls as zone-based elections.

IEC statistics show that up to now over 4.7 million Afghans have registered across the country, but the process of voter registration has not started in Ghazni districts.

Residents in the province who closed the IEC office have proposed that government either provides security to the province or reduces the size of election constituencies.

“If the president does not accept our demands, we will not allow elections to happen, we will boycott the elections and will stage demonstrations,” Abdullah Sadat, a resident of Ghazni said.

“We want the implementation of the law, the expectation of people is also the implementation of the law and whatever the law says must prevail,” Naseer Ahmad Faqiri, a member of Ghazni provincial council said.

“A number of people in Ghazni have reservations, their demands must be met based on the law, if their demands are against the law, government has a responsibility to convince the people. The basic issue in Ghazni is security threats, the Afghan government and the international community have a responsibility to pave the way for the people there to come to the ballot boxes,” said Abdul Qayoum Sajjadi, MP.

The IEC has said that its delegation that recently visited Ghazni has sent its report to the presidential palace.

The IEC called on the Afghan government to enter dialogue with the people of Ghazni to settle the dispute.

The commission has also called on the security institutions to provide security to Ghazni.

“Today also we had discussions with the security institutions regarding the issue of Ghazni, all were there including ministry of defense, ministry of interior, national directorate of security and (foreign) forces, members of the commission held discussions with them to find a solution for the people there so that they can participate in the elections,” said IEC commissioner Sayed Hafiz Hashimi.

According to Ghazni MPs, Nawa district of the province is under the control of Taliban while another thirteen districts are facing high threats.

They said that fifteen voter registration centers in Ghazni city remain closed.

From 44 voter registration centers some of them have been closed due to the shortage of election materials, said MPs.