Islam Yaftali, a parliamentary election candidate for Badakhshan province, on Monday levelled corruption allegations against the deputy chairmen of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC).

Yaftali showed messages he claims were sent to him by the two officials asking for bribes in exchange for a seat in parliament.  

Yaftali claimed that following the announcement of the preliminary results and the completion of the recount process, officials sent him congratulatory messages in which they declared him a winner. But later, an IEC commissioner and an IECC commissioner asked him for money.

He said when he refused to pay, his named was dropped from the winners list.  

But, the election commissioners have accused Yaftali of being involved in fraud, along with the head of the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), in Badakhshan.

Humaira Haqmal, Abdul Baseer Fayez and Maazullah Dawlati are among those who have been accused of corruption by Yaftali.

“We followed them everywhere and stopped them from committing crimes, so we resisted them (election commission officials). They went and invalidated the results and replaced it with preliminary results,” said Yaftali.

Yaftali also claimed that he has a recording of IEC commissioner Sayed Hafiz Hashemi asking him for money in exchange for a seat. But Hashemi denied the allegations and said the claims were baseless.

“This is a baseless allegation, if he has got something, he should take it to the legal and judicial organizations,” said Hashemi.

However, Fayez refused to talk about the allegations.

Although, IECC deputy Haqmal has confirmed that a congratulatory message had been sent to Yaftali, she claimed that after informing him, the IECC found that Yaftali had been involved in electoral fraud.  

“Those involved in fraud have been identified. Two provincial commissioners for Badakhshan have been introduced to the attorney general’s office,” said Humaira Haqmal, deputy head of the IECC.

“If there are problems, it is because of the central office and now they want to blame the provincial office for their failure. I am accountable for all those documents which have been sent from the provincial commission to the central office,” said Hamid Sadat, head of IECC in Badakhshan.

Yaflati has called on the Afghan legal and judicial institutions to probe the corruption charges against the election commissioners.