KABUL (Pajhwok): Some political and legal experts believe cases submitted against five presidential candidates to the Attorney General Office (AGO) by the Independent Election Complaints Commission could not be decided until the April polls.
They believe it would be impossible to investigate all the charges levelled against the five contenders during the less than three months left for the landmark elections. The experts say the time is too short to try them in courts.
The IECC on Monday referred the five presidential hopefuls to the Attorney General Office. Basir Azizi, a spokesman for the AGO, said a commission had been tasked with investigating the cases.
Without going into details about the nature of the charges, Azizi said the investigation process would be kept secret.
On the other hand, some analyst say the AGO could not finalise the cases until the April elections, believing it would be impossible for the IECC to take a decision on the fate these hopefuls.
Dr. Wadir Safi, a political science faculty lecturer at Kabul University, said had the IECC submitted the cases several months ago, they would have been concluded now.
He said some high-ranking government officials could put pressure on election officials to disqualify the accused candidates. He added some cases referred to legal institutions several years ago were yet to be decided.  
mrh/ma