Voting process for selecting new members of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has been postponed until Friday to ensure all presidential candidates will participate in the process.
The voting to pick 14 members for the IEC is applicable if all candidates attend the session, said Haroon Chakhansuri, President Ghani’s spokesman. Voting was originally scheduled on Wednesday, Feb 27.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Palace in a statement supporting the delay says, due to the request of presidential candidates committee and some absentees, the voting process for new IEC and IECC members has been postponed until Friday.
This comes after all commissioners from the two electoral commissions, including IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad and IECC chief Aziz Azizullah Aryayee, were dismissed from their posts, after President Ashraf Ghani signed off on an amendment to the electoral law.
Ghani approved the amendment on February 20, based on which the presidential elections candidates will pick new members for IEC and IECC.
In total, 12 commissioners were appointed to the posts in November 2016 as part of government’s efforts to ensure transparent and fair parliamentary elections.
However, the parliamentary elections in October were allegedly riddled with fraud and mismanagement.
Final results of October’s election for 15 provinces has been yet not released.
