The process of appointing new commissioners for election commissions is underway at the Presidential Palace where President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have also participated.
Eighty-one candidates will explain their plans – each for three minutes – to the attendants of the ceremony.
According to President Ghani’s deputy spokesman Shahussain Murtazawi, seventeen presidential candidates will vote for 14 new election commissioners.
A list obtained by TOLOnews shows that 81 candidates will compete for membership of the election commissions.
This comes in the wake of strong criticisms on the appointment procedures of new commissioners.
Based on the new amendments in the Election Law, the presidential elections candidates will pick the new members of the Independent Election Commission and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission.
All commissioners from the two electoral commissions – the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) – were dismissed from their posts, including the two chiefs, after President Ashraf Ghani signed off on an amendment to the electoral law.
Ghani approved the amendment on February 20, which resulted in the instant dismissal of the commissioners – including IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad and IECC Aziz Azizullah Aryayee.
The election law has 109 articles and 17 chapters and according to sources, a number of these articles have been amended.
The commissioners – 12 in total - were appointed to the posts in November 2016 as part of government’s efforts to ensure transparent and fair parliamentary elections.
However, the elections – held in October – were allegedly riddled with fraud and mismanagement.
This move comes amid ongoing criticism leveled at the commissioners who have still not released the final results for October’s elections for 15 provinces.
The commissioners – 12 in total - were appointed to the posts in November 2016 as part of government’s efforts to ensure transparent and fair parliamentary elections.
However, the elections – held in October – were allegedly riddled with fraud and mismanagement.