First published on the website of FEFA on 5 February 2020.

Addressing the electoral complaints entered a new phase by the announcement of ECC’s decisions about the complaints. FEFA (Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan) appreciate the ECC for its efforts to ensure the electoral justice and keeping its impartiality and independence and hopes the taken decisions about mechanisms of handling the major complaints are implemented in lights of the law given the acceptable documents and close cooperation of the ECC and IEC, as soon as possible. Prolonged election process has created irregularities and serious political, economic, security and social problems that will mostly harm the people and the future of the country. Given the negative political-social impacts of prolongation of the process, officials of both electoral commissions and election stakeholders are expected to work decisively with the spirit of cooperation to put an end to the process.

The ECC was expected to declare the results of its scrutiny and finale decisions about the electoral complaints but in lieu, it provided information which indicates further prolongation of the process. It’s hoped that the decisions are made without possible pressures of electoral tickets or not to escape from the pressure. The new stance of the commission has a series of questionable differences about the considered percentage and a different mechanism for scrutiny of disputed votes, which require further clarity. Additionally, ECC must consider and predict the complexity of the situation beforehand in order to develop mechanisms for implementation of its decisions. Past experiences of such periods indicate bitter stories that give us a lesson to learn. Moreover, the ECC had to provide information about the complaints which were processed by ECC’s provincial offices and needed to be handled in ECC’s HQ. It also had to provide information about the mechanism of handling the complaints which are not part of the categories announced today. Effective and comprehensive information sharing are key preconditions of ensuring transparency and legitimacy of elections. Therefore, the people of Afghanistan expect the electoral commissions to share information on fair manner.

The ECC in cooperation with IEC must codify a new timeline for finalizing the handling process of complaints and share it with the public. It must make sure that it will finish its works at a specific time. Implementation of the taken decisions requires close and legal cooperation of both commissions. The IEC as the executive body of the process has to pave the ground for implementation of the decisions made by ECC. It is expected to provide clarity on the mechanism of such cooperation. Moreover, the comprehensive cooperation of candidates and observer organizations is vital in the implementation of these decisions. FEFA calls on all parties to cooperate in this regard.

FEFA emphasizes on the impartiality of ECC and IEC in implementing the decisions and consider it as a key element in making the results acceptable for all.

Download the press release here: ECC’s decisions, time, and importance of divisiveness and transparency