The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) on Saturday said that based on new amendments in the election law, decisions of the IECC on complaints lodged against the electoral body will not be final and that a special court will probe complaints against the decisions made by the two commissions.
The IECC Secretariat Mohammad Qasim Elyasi said the special court will be formed in the near future and that any complaints made regarding the elections affairs or decisions of the two elections commissions, will be probed by the court.
Elyasi said the IECC commissioners are assessing complaints about the October 20 parliamentary elections for the provinces where the final results have not been announced so far.
“In the new law, the decision of the IECC is not the final decision. For instance, we can form a joint committee from the election commissions and if the joint committee reaches a result it is okay; otherwise, a special court will be formed to address the problem,” said Elyasi.
The new amendments in the election law were approved by President Ghani last month based on which new commissioners were appointed for the two electoral bodies – the Independent Election Commission and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission.
So far, the Independent Election Commission has announced the final results of parliamentary elections for 18 provinces and the results for another 15 provinces are yet to be announced.
The parliamentary elections faced allegations of fraud and irregularities by a number of candidates, the people and electoral monitoring organizations.
A parliamentary elections candidate from Logar, Sayed Farhad Akbari, said the former commissioners failed to maintain transparency in the electoral process.
“We call on the new commissioners to secure justice for the people,” Akbari said.
A spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, Mirza Mohammad Haqparast, meanwhile, said the new commissioners are assessing the operational plan for the upcoming elections.
“Announcing the remained results of parliamentary elections, budgeting for the four upcoming elections, operational plan and specifying the polling centers are the issues the commission is working on,” Haqparast added.
This comes as former election commissioners have been accused of corruption and their cases have been handed to the Attorney General’s Office and have been banned from traveling outside the country. So far, it is not clear whether judicial organizations have started investigation into the allegations against the election commissioners.