The Independent Election Commission (IEC) members at a press conference in Kabul announced the final list of polling centers for the upcoming presidential elections.
The IEC chairperson Hawa Alam Nuristani said that in total, 5,383 centers have been identified of which 2,002 centers are closed due to insecurity.
Nuristani said 406 polling centers have been identified in Ghazni province.
The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), meanwhile, said IEC has announced the polling centers which were identified in the previous elections and that there is no difference between this list and previous lists.
“They have gone forward based on the previous lists. They have re-announced the centers which were in the previous list and there is no change and it shows the commission’s low capacity,” said Marwa Amini, spokeswoman of FEFA.
Although the election law says that all the electoral process should be done by use of biometric system, but recently the election commission said biometric will not be used in voter registration process.
Fazl Rahman Oria, a political analyst, said having a transparent election without biometric system is difficult.
“We cannot be hopeful over having a transparent election until President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah are on power,” Oria said.
The election commission has said that the presidential elections will cost $135 million which will be paid by the international community.
