KABUL (Pajhwok): The Grand National Alliance (GNA) on Monday welcomed the use of biometric technology in the upcoming elections and called for the reopening of all shut IECoffices in provinces.
Some political parties and the GNA had termed the Oct 20 polls as incomplete, full of corruption and had asked for a new round of voter registration in order to use biometric technology.
They also proposed the government and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) a plan to hold transparent elections and change the current voting system.
However, when demands of the political parties were not met, they shut down IEC regional offices in Kandahar, Herat, Balkh and Kunduz provinces in protest. However, the offices were reopened today after the protestors were assured of the use of the biometrics.
The IEC said they would not meet all demands of the political parties except the use of biometric technology on the election day.
Hamayoon Hamayoon, a member of the GNA, said they reopened IEC regional offices after the IEC met their demand.
According to him, widespread fraud was committed in the process of distributing electoral stickers bearing National ID cards, but if the elections were carried out through biometrics, the possibility of fraud would be reduced and the polls would be 90 percent transparent.
Hamayoon warned if the biometric technology brought no transparency to the elections, they would close down all IEC offices on the voting day.
He stressed on exhibiting the biometric technology to political parties before dispatching it to polling stations.
pk/ma

 

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