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KABUL (SW) – Geeti Kohestani, a candidate for the post of election commissioner, was disqualified she was did not meet the legal age of 35 years by only 15 days.
Geeti received 7 votes in her favor while the highest was 9 received by Mawlana Mohammad Abdullah.
In conversation with Salam Watandar, Geeti said she had sent all the required documents to the media committee for review, but the committee suddenly removed her from the list of proposed commissioners at the last minutes and when the presidency issued decree on the selection of commissioners. She was informed her name was removed for a 15-day age difference.
Geeti has four-year of experience working in the judiciary and has twice served as commissioner of election commissions in Panjshir and Parwan provinces.
The female candidate was nominated by the National Congress party. She said she repeatedly tried to reach out to officials, but even the media refused to speak, “saying that the presidency had asked the media not to discuss this case because "the story is political."
Geeti said she had been eliminated from the list of commissioners, despite having gained enough votes to win the seat, simply because she was nominated by the National Congress party.
Few days back, a private newspaper published a report about an election commissioner, Haneef Danishyar, who allegedly forged his documents by two years to meet the legal requirement.
We tried to get the view of the presidency on this matter, but to no avail.
According to the fifth paragraph of Article 12 of the Electoral Code, one of the conditions for membership of the Independent EC is to complete the age of 6. Fifth indent, Article 12 of the Act states one of the conditions of membership is to "have attained the age of at least 6 years."
ENDS
