A day after the Grand National Coalition of Afghanistan announced that they have agreed on a candidate for presidential election and three vice presidents, some electoral watchdog organizations said the scheme is contravention to the law and that the Independent Election Commission (IEC) cannot register such a team for the polls.

The coalition officials said on Thursday that they will soon announce their candidate, his three vice presidents as well as a prime minister and his three deputies. 

The announcement was made by some of Afghanistan’s mainstream political parties such as Jamiat-e-Islami party, Hizb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami and the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan. 

“If a group includes prime minister in their election ticket, it is in contravention of the law and the commission should not grant them an election ticket,” said Yusuf Rasheed, CEO of Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. 

Based on the law, tickets for presidential elections shall include one presidential candidate and two running mates. 

“These people can make prime minister or anything they want. We do our work and will act based on the law,” said Sayed Hafizullah Hashemi, spokesman for Independent Election Commission.

An Afghan lawyer said no one has the right to amend the Constitution, except the Loya Jirga, the Grand Assembly.  

“Based on the Constitution, when a candidate announces his election ticket, it should included himself and his two deputies and there should be no third person,” said Nasrullah Stanikzai, a law lecturer at Kabul University. 

President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former interior minister Mohammad Umer Daudzai and former national security advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar so far have showed the interest to nominate themselves for the next year’s presidential elections.