KABUL (SW) – The new batch of election commissioners took oath here on Monday in presence of the President, CEO and other top officials.
Speaking on the occasion, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said the new election commissioners are now legally bound to shun ties to any political party. “Their ties to any political party with which they were previously linked would be severed, and any such ties would be considered as infringement”. He urged the commissioners to devise a mechanism to counter electoral rigging and misuse of authority.
He vowed the government would refrain from all sorts of intrusions in the electoral process. President Ghani urged the new commissioners to prepare for the forthcoming presidential elections, district and provincial council elections and the pending Wolesi Jirga (lower house) elections in Ghazni province as well as finalizing the results of WJ polls held in October.
Abdullah Abdullah, CEO, said on the occasion the electoral commissions had no coordination with their respective secretariats, and this shortcoming should be addressed in the future. He stressed the National Unity Government is committed to ensure independence of the electoral commissions and provide necessary support to them.
The CEO said peace process and electoral process are two different issues, and the government is striving on both fronts.
The new commissioners are set to resume work in two days.
Last week, 16 commissioners were elected from among 81 shortlisted candidates. Via a decree, President Ghani appointed 7 of them at the Independent Election Commission and 5 at the Independent Election Complaint Commission while two each have been appoint at respective secretariats at the electoral commissions.
Sayed Esmatullah, Mawlana Mohammad Abdullah, Awrang Zeb, Mohammad Hanif Danishyar, Musafir Qoqandi, Hawa Alam Nuristani, Rahima Zarifi were appointed as commissioners and Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang as head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Commission.
Mohammad Qasim Elyasi, Zuhra Bayan Shinwari, Din Mohammad Azimi, Mohammad Yunus Toghra, and Sayed Qutbuddin Roidar were appointed as commissioners and Chaman Shah Etemadi as head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Complaint Commission.
ENDS
