Although the National Unity Government is trying to hold the presidential election on the date scheduled by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), the problems and weak management within IEC show that it cannot be expected to carry out a timely and successful election with its current structure. The election commissioners are still at loggerheads over very key issues such as the budget. IEC chairman Hawa Alam Nuristani on Sunday said they need $146 million for the election, and that the budget proposal has been finalized. But Habib Rahman Nang, the head of IEC’s Secretariat who is the chief electoral officer, has estimated the budget at $150 million. Moreover, the IEC chairman announced the statistics of registered voters over the first eight days of the “supplementary” voter registration process which were later described by IEC spokespersons as a “slip of tongue.”
Lessons should have been learned from the disputed 2014 presidential and 2018 parliamentary elections, and that the election management should have been assigned to individuals who had relevant experience and strong management capacity, in addition to the overhaul of the electoral system. However, government leaders unfortunately neither attempted to reform the electoral system nor considered the necessary requirements in the appointment of the current commissioners. This way the fate of a national process such as election once again fell into the mercy of individuals whose actions will definitely make the upcoming presidential election controversial.
Even though the specific timeframe to revamp and streamline the electoral system has already been lost, there is still some time to stop the public’s trust in the democratic process from further erosion by taking concrete steps. Taking into account the significance of election, all election stakeholders – government, electoral tickets, election watchdogs, civil society and the international community – need to jointly press the election commissions to accelerate preparations for the ballot. Furthermore, the issue of transparency in the election should be taken seriously. If the election becomes controversial again and the next administration faces with legitimacy crisis as in the past, especially now as the Taliban are politically and militarily at the strongest position since their ouster in 2001, all the sacrifices made by Afghan people over the last two decades can go in vain.
