KABUL (Pajhwok): Officials on Wednesday said the election commission’s affairs concerning the Wolesi Jirga elections went ‘unaffected’ after dismissal of the body and new commissioners could decide on the remaining unannounced final results from 17 electoral districts.
On Tuesday, President Ashraf Ghani fired the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) after approving draft amendments to the electoral law.
The Attorney General Office (AGO) on Wednesday announced placing the former election commissioners on the exit control list (ECL).
The Presidential Palace has said the process to select new commissioners would start soon and the ousted IEC and IECC heads and secretaries would continue in office in acting capacities until new commissioners were introduced.
The dismissal of the election commissioners comes following chaotic Wolesi Jirga polls on October 20 and 21 across 32 provinces.
The IEC announced initial Wolesi Jirga election results after a three-month delay and final results from only 18 provinces have so far been announced. However, the final results from 15 provinces and the Kuchi (nomads) and the Hindu minority electoral districts are yet to be announced.
Shah Hussain Murtazavi, deputy presidential spokesman, told a press conference in Kabul that the dismissal of election commissioners would not affect the Wolesi Jirga election results process which he said were normally managed by the secretariat sections of the IEC and IECC. He said new commissioners would be introduced soon.
Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, IEC deputy spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the IECC had shared the final results of another three provinces Ghor, Logar and Badghis with the IEC and the commission’s operations proceeded ‘normally’.
However, he said the IEC operations section had no authority to announce the election results.
He said the final results of 18 provinces had been announced and of the remaining 17 electoral districts would be decided by new election commissioners.
mds/ma