Joint press release of election alliance group for transparency of election
Kabul – The Alliance of Election Observer Groups for Transparency of Elections is made up of the election expert watchdog organizations which advocacy for electoral justice. Taking into consideration the need for joint work to assure transparency of the forthcoming parliamentary and district council elections, the election observer groups decided to establish the Alliance of Election Observer Groups for Transparency of Elections with the aim to track the status and developments made towards conducting the forthcoming elections and regularly share its findings along with recommendations with the relevant bodies. The election watchdog organizations (The Alliance of Election Observer Groups for Transparency of Elections) express their concerns regarding the attempts made by the supporters of political parties to close the doors of provincial offices of the Independent Election Commission. The attempts negatively impinge upon the preparations and directly threaten the polling date. Additionally, the alliance expresses its concerns over the slowness of the preparations taken for the proper management of the voting and counting day, delay in recruitment and training of temporary staffs who will be assigned to manage the polling centers and stations, the lack of accountability of IEC about its performance and sensitive electoral materials, distrusts and discordance in the leadership and the secretariat of IEC, inability to finalize the numbers of polling centers and stations based on the results of security assessments and recent statistics of population, the murder of some candidates and further deterioration of the security situation on the threshold of election unprofessional behavior of the relevant institutions toward electoral cases, symbolizing the role of election observation organizations and lack of program to on regulating effective observation of political parties, candidates’ agents and election observation organizations, commencement of premature electoral campaign by a number of candidates and lack of action by the relevant bodies to prevent them, lack of building join capacity between the Civil Population Registration Authority and the Independent Election Commission in order to review the cases which effect on credibility of voters list, lack of holding effective awareness programs, and issuance of unnecessary decrees in presence of law and legal institutions.
FEFA (Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan)
• Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) • Free Election and Transparency Watch Organization (FETWO) • Free Watch Afghanistan (FWA) • Election and Transparency Watch Organization of Afghanistan (ETWA) • Afghanistan Youth Social and National Organization (AYNSO) • Training Human Rights Association (THRA) • Media
In this press release the election watchdog organizations express their concerns regarding the attempts made by the supporters of political parties to close the doors of provincial offices of the Independent Election Commission.
• The alliance (Alliance of the election observer groups for transparency of the elections) calls on all political parties and coalitions to refrain from closing the doors of electoral commissions in Kabul and provinces and disrupting their works. The alliance convince the respective bodies to solve the discordance through dialogue in a way to satisfy the protesters and prevent from disrupting of works of electoral commissions in order to pave the ground for conducting of a transparent and creditable elections. In this context, the international community, especially the United Nations, can play a positive role to break the deadlock. • The Independent Election Commission must refrain from unprofessional and rejectionist reactions. It must put all efforts to build public trusts and multilateral pivot of convergence. It is the duty of IEC to direct all institutions into the right directions based on the framework of their duties and their capabilities and capacities in favor of the process. • We call on the Afghan government to put constant efforts to form a large-scale political consensus that provides a broad sealing for electoral processes, while also providing a good opportunity to break the electoral deadlock. The main objective of this shall be the integrity and political credibility of the electoral process. • Establishment of the committee on transparency comprises of members of the election observation organizations, the political parties, media, the Independent Human Rights Commission, and lawyers union in order cooperate in regulating and sharing monitoring information, tracking the performance of relevant bodies and presenting proposals and recommendations for improvement of the affairs related to elections. • The alliance strongly asks the honorable candidates, to accept the election law and election procedures as basic principles during their electoral campaigns and not to commit electoral abuses by themselves and their supporters. In this regard, we ask the electoral commissions to take timely and legal measures against the offenders. For full list of recommendations go to read more section or download the attached PDF file.
FEFA held a joint press release with election watchdog organizations for transparency of election. These organizations expressed their concerns on the closure of IEC’s provincial offices by the supporters of political parties and they believe that if the electoral commissions, the Afghan government, and the political parties do not collaborate and cooperate for conducting a credible and transparent election, it will not only postpone the elections but also create political deadlocks, destabilize the country and seriously damage the presidential election. Given the concerns and opportunities mentioned above and considering the fact that credibility of election is momentous, the alliance presented some recommendations and called on political parties to avoid closing IEC’s provincial offices.
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The alliance believes that if the electoral commissions, the Afghan government, and the political parties do not collaborate and cooperate for conducting a credible and transparent election, it will not only postpone the elections but also create political deadlocks, destabilize the country and seriously damage the presidential election. The alliance has serious concerns with regard to the elections in Ghazni province and believes the dilemma of elections in Ghazni denotes inability of election management bodies. Ambiguity in the work of the delegation assigned by the president to review the allegations made by the political parties about the fake Tazkeras and documents is another serious concern. Given the concerns and opportunities mentioned above and considering the fact that credibility of election is momentous, the alliance presents the following recommendations to the relevant bodies and calls on them to consider and implement the recommendations in order to witness an acceptable and flawless elections: 1. The alliance (Alliance of the election observer groups for transparency of the elections) calls on all political parties and coalitions to refrain from closing the doors of electoral commissions in Kabul and provinces and disrupting their works. The alliance convince the respective bodies to solve the discordance through dialogue in a way to satisfy the protesters and prevent from disrupting of works of electoral commissions in order to pave the ground for conducting of a transparent and creditable elections. In this context, the international community, especially the United Nations, can play a positive role to break the deadlock. The alliance calls on the United Nations to take action in this regard and in coordination with the relevant bodies work on a practical mechanism to pave the ground for acceptance of the recommendations of political parties in term of monitoring and transparency. There is no doubt that 2 other demands of the political parties: 1, changing of the electoral system and use of bio-metric in polling day require more time. Therefore, we request the United Nations to develop a proposal on implementation of these 2 demands in cooperation with the relevant bodies and present it after the parliamentary elections for the presidential election. 2. The Independent Election Commission must refrain from unprofessional and rejectionist reactions. It must put all efforts to build public trusts and multilateral pivot of convergence. It is the duty of IEC to direct all institutions into the right directions based on the framework of their duties and their capabilities and capacities in favor of the process. Aggressive and stressful spirits has never been a solution to the deadlock, and it would be better to respond to the concerns of the stakeholders by working in expert and professional way and reducing the level of opposition to the least of it. 3. We call on the Afghan government to put constant efforts to form a large-scale political consensus that provides a broad sealing for electoral processes, while also providing a good opportunity to break the electoral deadlock. The main objective of this shall be the integrity and political credibility of the electoral process. 4. Establishment of the committee on transparency comprises of members of the election observation organizations, the political parties, media, the Independent Human Rights Commission, and lawyers union in order cooperate in regulating and sharing monitoring information, tracking the performance of relevant bodies and presenting proposals and recommendations for improvement of the affairs related to elections. 5. The alliance strongly asks the honorable candidates, to accept the election law and election procedures as basic principles during their electoral campaigns and not to commit electoral abuses by themselves and their supporters. In this regard, we ask the electoral commissions to take timely and legal measures against the offenders. 6. Election awareness campaigns should be launched as soon as possible by the responsible authorities. At any scale that, the awareness of the people is increased, to that extend it can cause public participation in the process and reduction of fraud, and discomfit of ballot papers. 7. The alliance requests IEC to commence the recruitment and training of staffs as soon as possible. We are concerned about the working competency and professional implementation of the related tasks, and as much as this process is delayed, its effectiveness will be jeopardized. 8. The alliance calls up on the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to illuminate people in a timely manner in the picture of important election issues, and shall not hesitate to do anything in regard with affairs that enhance the credibility of this institution as an independent and accountable institution. The Commission should have a transparent accountability of sensitive materials. We continue to call on the Commission to provide transparent accountability to Afghanistan in relation to the statistics of printed and consumed amount of the stickers, as well as extra or additional stickers in the storerooms of this institution and its transfer from provinces to capital. 9. Although the IEC announced the publication of the voters list, but since this list has not been shared with the Central Civil Population Registration Authority, we ask the Commission to initiate a joint review of voter registration process with the Central Civil Population Registration Authority and this joint review should be in its bill before the election day, so that the preparation of a precise list is facilitated on election day. 10. We request the electoral commissions to provide the opportunity and ground of the alike and comprehensive monitoring to observatory organizations, political parties and representatives of the candidates, and to prepare for the timely granting of credit letters. The alliance request candidates as well to get the credentials right away and in response, the commission should work with them on a framework that provides easy and facile access to credentials and oversight for all involved parties and work with them closely. 11. The alliance calls on the IEC to put the internal disputes aside, and not to waste the valuable time and energy on unnecessary issues, and to carry out more actions that maintain and enhance the process. 12. The alliance asks political parties and coalitions as well to share all documents and indicating cases of fabrication and forgery with IEC in case uncertainty on Election Commission present them to the Electoral Complaints Commission to be considered and reviewed. We encourage all institutions to accountability, and we want political parties and political movements to pressurize responsible institutions to for accountability. 13. We strongly request the security officials to provide security for candidates, employees, observers, monitors and consider security of the voters and the polling centers as a priority. The security institutions are requested to devise a cohesive plan to minimize the civilians’ casualties and collateral damages. There take timely measures to secure election campaigns, protect sensitive electoral materials and prevent abuse and interference in the process. 14. As well as, we ask the government to consult with the relevant authorities’ before issuing any decree regarding election.
9/17/2018
25
1 Day
Kabul
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