In line with article 156 of the constitution, IEC has the authority of administration and supervision of every kind of elections and referral to the general public opinion in the country. For the first time the IEC was established in 2005 in compliance with Presidential Decree No. 21.
The current IEC which came into being in accordance to 105th presidential legislative decree and endorsed by the president on October 2017 has seven members who also serve as head of the commission, operational assistance, finance and administration assistance, secretary and spokesman.
IEC Secretariat:
Secretariat is the executive body of IEC and its main responsibility is the conduct of elections operational affairs within its framework of authority. The commission recommends three persons who complete the criteria for the secretary position to the president and the president chooses one among them for the position.
The Secretariat implements all decisions, directions and roadmaps of the commission with regional and provincial representation. In line with the decision of IEC the secretariat implement its activities through central and regional offices in the 34 provinces of the country.
The IEC administrative department supervises the regional and provincial offices. It implements and leads the local offices in line with the direction of the central IEC office.
Media Committee:
The IEC create a three-member media committee one month before the launch of candidates’ registration and monitor the activities of media outlets. The committee look into the media election coverage, balance in the election related reports and the violations committed by the media outlets in connection to the election coverage. All voters, political parties, watchdogs and candidates can register complain against the media outlets.
The media committee scrutinized complains regarding the media violations and if needed they share it with the concerned commission at the Ministry of Information and Cultural Affairs. Thirty days after the announcement of election results the media committee give its media monitoring report to the IEC.
Local and International Election Watchdogs:
Elections in Afghanistan are widely monitored by local and foreign watchdogs. Political parties, civil society organisations, UN and media could monitor the conduct of election. Election monitors could visit, oversee the polling stations and stay during vote count.
IEC website address: http://www.iec.org.af/
IEC Facebook address: https://www.facebook.com/IECAfghanistanOfficial/
