Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA)

Press Release: Wolesi Jirga's decision on presidential decree   regarding IEC and ECC duties and authorities

For immediate release:

Kabul1 June 5, 2016

Wolesi Jirga as house of people is supposed to make a historic decision regarding the presidential decree on amendment of the Law on the Structure, Duties and Authorities of Electoral Commissions tomorrow. Considering the experience of 2014 elections, the need for holding a free and fair election and increasing public trust on national processes including election the National Assembly specially Wolesi Jirga is expected to play a historic role in electoral reform process. The previous decision of National Assembly regarding the rejection of presidential decrees on amendment of the electoral law faced serious criticisms of people. Beside, government the national assembly is also responsible for delay and ambiguity of electoral reform process. The rejection of presidential decrees on electoral reform by the National Assembly led to prolonging of ambiguities on electoral reform and holding of upcoming parliamentary and district council elections. Similarly, there are many questions on legitimacy of continuation of work of Wolesi Jirga.

Previously, Wolesi Jirga rejected the presidential decrees on electoral reform which led to continuation of ambiguities on electoral reform therefore FEFA as the largest election observation organization in Afghanistan present the following recommendations to Wolesi Jirga to use the opportunity for implementation of electoral reform:

1. 1.  Wolesi Jirga will face serious criticisms if the MPs again reject the decrees and play role in ambiguity of electoral reform process and holding of upcoming parliamentary and district council elections.
2. 2.  Wolesi Jirga is recommending to amend the decree instead of rejecting it. Amending the articles for further enrichment of the decree is an acceptable proceeding than totally rejecting the decree.
3. 3.  Members of Wolesi Jirga must not pretext on some titles of the decree to blame the government and acquit themselves. Blaming others and acquitting ourselves cannot solve the problems ofpeople and electoral reform process.
4. 4.  The experience indicate that parliaments play an important role in solving the political deadlocksand build trust between people and politicians. Therefore, considering the demand of people and civil society organizations parliament is expected to play an important role and put an end to the ambiguity of electoral reform instead of rejecting the decree and shall not help the government in delaying the implementation of electoral reform process and facing upcoming parliamentary and district council elections to further uncertainty.
5. 5.  FEFA believe on cooperative role of all decisionTmaking bodies in electoral reform and urge all relevant stakeholders including National Assembly to not let the politicians and to pawn the election process anymore. Prolonging this uncertain situation will endanger the rule of law, democracy and political stability in the country.

The civil society organizations, political parties and people of Afghanistan will seriously follow the decision making process of Wolesi Jirga tomorrow to understand how the MPs represent their constituents in a national process. We believe that Wolesi Jirga makes the proper decision about electoral reform and wish them more success.

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