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    Electoral Reforms

    GOALS
    The Afghan government is deeply committed to democracy and building democratic institutions. Elections are an imperative part of re-affirming the integrity of Afghanistan’s young democracy. The government has focused intensively on creating a level-playing field for transparent and fair elections.

    OVERALL PROGRESS
    Achieved ½: 50.0 Achieved ½: 50.0 %In process ½: 50.0 %In process ½: 50.0 %In process ½Percentage: 50.0
    DELIVERABLES
    – An electoral reform commission is established and electoral reforms implemented to ensure that future elections in Afghanistan are fully inclusive, transparent and credible.
     PROGRESS: –Achieved.
    Creation of Electoral Management Bodies
    • The Special Electoral Reform Commission (SERC) was established in 2015, which is responsible for proposing electoral reforms.
    • Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) was formed.
    • Through the transparent legal procedures, the selection committee introduced the proposed members of the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission. After joint interviews by the president, Chief Executive, Chief Justice, 2nd Vice President, and Attorney General, the new commissioners were appointed. Finance and security committees of the Election Commission were also formed.
    • The National Elections Forum was established to serve as consultative mechanism on parliamentary and presidential elections, and includes representatives from the government, Independent Election Commission and Election Complaints Commission, political groups outside of government, and civil society.
    • On July 19, 2018, President Ashraf Ghani appointed Ahmad Shah Zamanzai to serve as head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Commission.
    • Legislative Reforms
    • The SERC oversaw the revision of the Election Law in 2016, which now defines what constitutes a polling station, requires that they be established and placed in a balanced manner, and included a regulation to allow for an assessment of all polling stations by the IEC.
    • Assessment and preparation
    • The assessment of polling stations was completed in September 2017, with 90% of all polling stations round the country included in the assessment. About 40% of polling stations are located in areas where threats exist.
    • The list of polling centers was given to the security officials, who conducted a thorough security assessment of the polling centers.
    • As a result of this process, the IEC has approved 7,366 polling centers for the upcoming Parliamentary and District Council elections.
    • A complaints procedure is nearing completion, as per the Election Law. Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is responsible for addressing challenges and complaints arising from negligence, violation and identification of crimes related to elections.
    • The Electronic National ID card registration was launched by the Population Registration Authority in May 2018 and is on-going. This will ensure further transparency and efficiency in future elections, when we are able to use e-tazkira as opposed to paper-based tazkira.
    • The IEC and Civil Service Commission have been working together to fill vacant positions at the IEC and thousands of temporary positions around the country to facilitate elections. Close to 2,000 women in all 34 provinces were hired to ensure that women have access to participating in elections.
    • The Afghan government has funded the procurement of biometric voter registration equipment, which will be placed in voter centers that are deemed at a high risk of fraudulent activity. These machines will expose instances of fraud during the October 20 parliamentary elections. The technology will be advanced during the Presidential elections to prevent instances of fraud.
    – Fair, transparent and participative elections are conducted.
     PROGRESS: – In process.                                
    Parliamentary and district council elections
    • Parliamentary and district council elections are scheduled for October 20, 2018.
    • At the NATO Summit in July, President Ashraf Ghani invited the international community to observe the upcoming elections.
    • Voter registration for these elections are now completed, with a total of just under 9 million persons registered to vote—5,783,037 (63.7%) men, 3,114,942 (34.3%) women and, as separately registered groups, 173,646 (1.9%) Kuchi (nomads) and 583 (0.006%) Hindu and Sikh voters. These figures far exceed the UN’s estimation of the number of people who would register. For a list of voter registration statistics according to province, please visit this link.
    • After about 9 million Afghans registered to vote across all 34 provinces, 34% of them women, ACCRA has now scanned all of the registered voter’s tazkiras into a digital database, and the IEC has digitized the voter registration cards. Now the two are being cross-checked to eliminate instances of fraud.
    • The Afghan government has funded the procurement of biometric voter registration equipment, which will be placed in voter centers that are deemed at a high risk of fraudulent activity. These machines will expose instances of fraud during the October 20 parliamentary elections. The technology will be advanced during the Presidential elections to prevent instances of fraud.
    • Parliamentary candidates have now been registered in 33 provinces and the list of candidates published online here: Wolesi Jirga candidates, District Council candidates, disqualified Wolesi Jirga Candidates.
    • Further preparations for these elections include:
      • A joint security directive was signed on July 3, 2017 with security organizations and the ICE.
      • Voter public awareness programs were launched throughout the country.
      • The IEC is nearing completion of recruitment for all permanent staff in capital and province level, in partnership with the Civil Service Commission.
      • The IEC and the IECC are working on an MoU to better coordinate and address complaints during the elections.complaint points during elections.
      • Polling stations have been approved and communicated to the public.
      • Agreements with the Afghanistan Civil Registration Authority (ACCRA) and the Ministry of Telecommunications on the joint use of resources for voter registration, preparation of voter list and issuing of E-Tazkera are completed. An MoU is also in place between IEC and ACCRA to cross-check taskeras to identify fake ones and reduce the possibility of fraud.
    • Presidential elections
    • On July 31, 2018, the Independent Election Commission publicly announced that presidential elections will be held on April 20, 2019. Preparations are being made accordingly.