Two presidential candidates and some members of electoral monitoring organizations on Friday said they doubt the capacity of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to hold the presidential elections on time.

The elections have been scheduled for July 20. 

The candidates said based on the amended election law, the election commission should prepare voters list and use biometric system for the upcoming polls. But they added that they see it impossible with the current capacity of the IEC. 

“We want quality for elections. It means people’s votes should not be stolen, people’s votes should be announced transparently, and it is the duty of the election commission. Time is not important, we can give the election commission another one or two months,” Presidential candidate Sayed Noorullah Jalili said.

“Afghanistan’s problem will not be resolved if we have an election like the parliamentary elections,” Presidential candidate Mohammad Shahab Hakimi said. 

The election law says that the polls should be held using biometric system and voters list. 

“The election commissions do not have the budget and the equipment. People have not trust in election commissions. Therefore, I want to say that July 20 does not seem a real timeline,” said Yusuf Rasheed, the CEO of FEFA.

“There is no issue that we should say the presidential elections will delay, but in general, our workload will increase and this will create more workload for us,” said Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, a spokesman for IEC. 

This comes after new commissioners were appointed for the two election commissions – the Independent Election Commission and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission – in a bid to hold transparent and fair presidential elections.