The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Monday criticized the Afghan government for not taking steps to finalize the process of hiring female staff members for polling centers. 

According to IEC commissioner Hafiz Hashimi, female staff members for polling centers were supposed to have already been hired by the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), something which has not yet been done.  

“This work should have been done earlier, the ministry of interior and ministry of women’s affairs have not done their work; the ministry of women’s affairs said it will send the list (of candidates) to the ministry of interior, but until now, no women have been hired in any province,” said Hashimi. 

He said that training material for voter registration has been sent to all provinces, adding that the process of sending sensitive election material to provinces is expected to be completed by the end of the week. 

Hashimi stated that sensitive election material has been sent to 20 provinces so far. 

In some remote and insecure provinces, the security forces have distributed election material by air, he said.

“Training material for voter registration has reached 34 provinces, sensitive election material has also been sent to 20 provinces and currently material is on the way to Daikundi and Parwan provinces; they will reach all provinces by the end of the week; government forces have contributed very well in this respect,” said Hashimi. 

According to Afghan security officials, 984 polling stations are found in secure regions in the country while another 2,000 polling centers are in medium and high-risk areas.  

The IEC said the election commission plans to hire 14,000 female employees for the polling stations. 

The government has allocated $3.3 million USD towards the hiring of women, the IEC said.  

According to the commission, holding elections will depend on security in the insecure regions; but election monitoring groups have been saying that there are serious challenges in the way of holding the elections, including the interference of local lawbreakers and poor leadership. 

“There are concerns relating to security of polling stations, hiring (of staff) and the nature of voter registrations,” said Naeem Ayoubzada, CEO of  Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA).

The IEC last week announced October 20 as the date for the country’s parliamentary and district council elections.