Parliamentary Election Should Not be Victim of Presidential Election
If the current concerns about the parliamentary elections are not taken into account, these concerns will increase in the presidential election and its consequences will take the place of 2014 presidential election events.
There is no doubt that the presidential election is more important than the parliamentary election, but grounds should not be provided for a parliamentary election to be a victim of the presidential election.
The presidential election and the executive directorate called on the IEC earlier this week to declare the presidential election date as soon as possible. It is right to hold the presidential election parallel to the parliamentary election on 20 October, it is expected from the NUG and the IEC to focus on holding the parliamentary and district elections. If the parliamentary election would be held transparent, undoubtedly it will encourage the people to have a massive presence in the presidential election.
Unfortunately, holding the parliamentary election is not as that much important for the government of Afghanistan, otherwise, the House of Representatives did not work for three years longer than the legal period of the parliamentary term. The government’s indifference to parliamentary elections has made the parliamentary representatives indifferent.
President Ghani, his political opponents, and the election commission still have controversies and opposite demands in many respects.
The government emphasizes determining the date for presidential election when internal consensus has not been formed on the parliamentary election yet. The formation of internal consensus paves the grounds for a transparent election.
Now, some MPs criticize the government that it somehow wants to sacrifice parliamentary elections by posing the presidential election. first, the parliamentary challenges should be obviated. The election commission announced that 9 million people registered themselves for the elections, the figure received severe criticism by the political parties. The leader of Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and some prominent political faces said 9 million registered voters is just a lie, accusing the election commission of fraud.
It has not been cleared yet how to hold the parliamentary election in Ghazni province. Although the IEC announced that the parliamentary election in Ghazni will be held based on three zones. The IEC’s decision on Ghazni received a wave of criticisms and there is not still clear how to hold the election in Ghazni province.
The whole people of Afghanistan could not register themselves for the upcoming elections due to insecurity in various parts of the country. The high number of registered voters in insecure provinces than safe provinces is also one of the issues that should be one-sided. The people and political parties gradually lose their belief in the election commission’s functions by the elapse of time. So, it will not be in the interest of the country in such status to hurry in determining the presidential election date. The government’s pressure will strengthen this suspicion that yes! Holding the elections is important for the government even if it is imperfectly carried out. These days all parties involved in the election are discussing election issues.
On the other hand, in terms of capacity, the IEC will not be able to schedule two separate programs for the presidential and parliamentary elections at the same time. If the current concerns about the parliamentary elections are not taken into account, these concerns will increase in the presidential election and its consequences will take the place of 2014 presidential election events. The Election Commission and the government should be responsible against the protests, otherwise, elections will turn into a crisis than creating an opportunity.
The parliamentary elections 2009 became controversial too which was resolved as a result of domestic efforts. The government leaders and politicians should work to prevent a recurrence of the crisis.
Holding the presidential election is also a priority for the International Community as it emphasizes it.
In all, it seems that the presidential election is pushing to involve electoral parties in presidential election discourse by posing the issue, so that disagreements would be forgotten.
Akhtar Suhail – (DID) press agency
Translated by Zaher Mahjob
