FULL PAPER: TEFA POSITION PAPER

PREFACE:

In accordance with Afghanistan’s constitution, Parliamentary elections are to be held once in every five years so that new representatives could pave their ways to parliament, but after the 2014 Presidential and Provincial Council elections which resulted in severe mistrusts and an immense surge of political challenges, considerations were made on intense electoral reforms by electoral stakeholders and to declare the electoral reforms as a working priority. As per the Afghan constitution, Parliamentary elections should have been held at the beginning of 2015, but due to continuous pretenses for implementing electoral reforms, this particular election has not yet been held for 3 consecutive years now since its determined date, and in addition to it, District Council elections which are to be held once in every 3 years as per the Afghan constitution, has not yet been experienced and was decided for both the mentioned elections to be held simultaneously, though both the concerned elections are of great value in consolidating Afghan democracy.

IEC’s newly introduced members after a situational analysis, set July.7th.2018 as the date for holding the upcoming Parliamentary and District Council elections, but due to lack of optimal preparations, IEC on March.31st.2018 announced the new date for the upcoming elections which is 20th.October.2018 followed by the emission of Election calendar on April.22nd.2018 showcasing the timeframe of all the electoral phases. By far, IEC has managed to execute activities which encompass announcement of Election Day, Voter Registration, record and address electoral objections and complaints concerning voter registration process, emission of Election calendar, nomination of candidates to Parliamentary and District Council Elections, assessment of the collected information on candidates’ nomination and emission of the preliminary list of candidates and collection of objections and complaints on the preliminary list of candidates, still these activities have not been thoroughly and accurately carried out owing to all the drawbacks and deficiencies in IEC’s work which will be enlightened explicitly in the Problem section of the Position Paper.

Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan as one of the most prominent electoral oversight bodies in Afghanistan, after an accurate analysis of the ongoing situation, declares its position in the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections. Taking the given time for the upcoming elections into account, efforts demonstrated by the election stakeholders by far have been dissatisfactory for TEFA and has caused major concerns. TEFA as a technical election observer foundation, deems itself accountable for eradicating issues and challenges through the responsible entities prior to the very day of Election, for avoiding dysfunctions and inadequacies, and providing the election observer foundations with the opportunity to have inclusive, impartial and professional observation from the electoral processes.