KABUL (SW) – President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has directed government officials not to intervene in the forthcoming presidential election.
Shah Hussein Mortazavi, the deputy spokesman for the president, read out these instructions at a news conference. The directives noted that all government officials are required to cooperate with the Independent Election Commission and respect the principle of impartiality in the electoral process. The security forces have been directed to take the necessary measures for the security of the electoral process, and for women's active participation in the process, women officers should be deployed at polling stations.
According to the decree, the security forces should protect human dignity and the legal rights of voters, candidates, observers and the media and refrain from stirring ethnic, racial, linguistic and other prejudices.
In other part of the decree, the government officials have been directed not to influence candidates or use state resources in favor of the any candidate unless they are fairly available to all candidates.
The IEC has been advised to refrain from nominating individuals for recruitment, facilitating entry of armed people at the polling centers amd inviting candidates to inaugurate projects. It has also been asked to protect information provided to them during the commissioning.
It warned those found guilty of violation would be referred to the legal institutions for accountability.
The deputy spokesman for the president also presented details of the amended election laws.
According to Mortazavi, in Article 13 of the Law on how to elect members of the commission, the following is stated: Each political party registered at the Ministry of Justice can nominate one candidate and eligible civil society organizations can nominate 15 candidates five of whom should be women.
He added the President will appoint members, secretaries and bosses of the commissions from this list.
It should be noted that according to the new election law, if the president is an electorate, the other candidates will vote for the nominees, and the top seven commission candidates would secure the slots. According to the new law, the members of the electoral commissions should respect the ethnic and gender composition of the election commissions and at least two women should be members of these commissions. If the ethnic and gender composition of the candidates for election commissions are not met, the President can direct changes.
ENDS