Although the National Unity Government postponed the parliamentary election several times under the excuse of electoral reforms, the ongoing preparations for the democratic process suggest that there is still no guarantee the election will be held transparently. After pressures from political parties and the civil society, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) decided to use biometric technology for voter identification during parliamentary election slated for October 20, just a week from now. However, there are a lot of concerns and questions with regard to the use, configuration and functionality of the system. One of the major worries is that the biometric devices are not connected with a central database, thereby failing to prevent impersonation and multiple voting by the same person. Now even there are reports that the devices have technical glitches, and cannot identify fingerprints properly, which means that they cannot prevent the use of multiple votes by a single voter even at a polling center.
The actions of IEC and government show they have no political will for ensuring transparency in the election, or else the National Unity Government should have taken practical steps as of its inception that could truly contribute to transparency in election. Additionally, efforts should have been made to pave the way for a high voter turnout. IEC and government may not be willing to properly utilize the biometric system so that the real number of registered voters is not exposed. The election commission has put the number of registered voters so high that has already raised doubts about its credibility.
Since there is now no expectation that the Independent Election Commission will guarantee a transparent election, other stakeholders should swing into action to ensure electoral transparency. Election watchdogs, civil society organizations, candidates and ordinary citizens should join hands to prevent any industrial-scale fraud in the Wolesi Jirga election through rigorous oversight. If the election stakeholders themselves do not try their best to ensure ballot transparency, once again candidates, who are not capable of public representation and whose primary goal to win a parliamentary seat is to protect their individual interests, will secure seats through vote rigging instead of genuine votes.
