Selective justice cannot take societies towards stability, and indeed such form of justice itself is injustice. Unbiased treatment is a prerequisite to ensuring justice. As long as justice is used as a passport to achieving political ends, injustice will continue to unabated. Afghanistan has unfortunately suffered so much from that aspect. The general problem in Afghanistan is that too often justice is not delivered to victims, and even when there are symbolic attempts to deliver justice, it is done selectively, which itself is an injustice.
After the parliamentary election results became controversial due to allegations of industrial-scale fraud, President Ghani sacked all election commissioners by issuing a legislative decree amending the Electoral Law.
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO), as per people’s demand, has tasked a team to investigate cases of members of both the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC). It is a step forward towards ensuring justice, yet the principle of fairness has unfortunately not been complied with in the move. Election commissioners are doubtlessly responsible for the failure to properly manage the election, and must be held accountable, but the executive officers of the two commissions, especially the heads of their secretariats are equally responsible for the mess.
The central and provincial executive managers of IEC and IECC must also be held to account for the failure and claims of fraud. If government leaders are truly committed to deliver justice and seek to avoid the repeat of the problems of the previous election in the future by putting election officials on a fair trial, they have to order fair investigations into allegations of fraud leveled against IEC’s executive managers and provincial officials, and make the findings the public.
The prosecution of election commissioners alone cannot ensure justice. It behooves the legal and judicial institutions to bring to book all actors, including the parliamentary candidates, against which allegations of fraud and vote-rigging exist and whom are found guilty. The government must end the culture of both impunity and selective justice and try to gradually restore public’s trust in rule of law and justice.
