KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): A member of the Kandahar provincial council on Tuesday said the prolonged electoral crisis had adversely affected every sphere of life and people had lost the address where to go for resolving their problems.
Haji Agha Lalai Dastagiri, who is seeking reelection, told Pajhwok Afghan News previously people would visit the council office twice a week to share their problems with public representatives, but there had been no such visits in the past six months.
The outgoing provincial council members had suspended their meetings after the electioneering for the April provincial council election began and since then, they were waiting for the newly elected members to replace them, Dastagiri said.
Six months into the electoral process, neither new members are introduced nor the sitting ones allowed to resolve people’s problems.
The candidate said it was not a proper decision to delay the announcement of final results from the provincial council elections due to the deadlocked presidential vote.
He said the uncertain situation had landed the masses in various problems and eroded people’s trust in the provincial and presidential elections.
“According to my information, the people are facing a number of problems. Previously the people would visit us to help them resolve their problems, but now they go after influential figures.”
He said there were many problems which tribal elders could not resolve individually. Such problems needed to be shared with the provincial government through the provincial council, he said.
In order to resolve people’s problems, he said, the final results from the provincial council elections should be announced simultaneously the presidential election results as soon as possible.
Dastagiri, who has won the election, said their outgoing tenure had been successful in terms of carrying out their activities.
He said they would meet people twice a week to listen to their problems and make efforts at resolving them. People from all districts would attend the meetings, he recalled.
He said most of the problems were about insecurity, governance, corruption, education, health, electricity and others, which they would convey to the authorities concerned including the provincial and central governments and foreign troops and even the international community.
He said their tenure saw provincial council members visiting a number of districts to identify and resolve problems facing residents.
The public representatives would visit Kabul once after every six months or a year to share people’s problems with the ministries concerned, he remembered.
He said the election results should be announced at the earliest because it would help normalise the government’s affairs.
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