Electoral Administration in Afghanistan

The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC)

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) is independent from other branches of government and administrative institutions and has the mandate to prepare and organise all elections and referendums in Afghanistan.

The IEC consists of seven members appointed by the President of Afghanistan for a three-year tenure, which can be indefinitely renewed. The President of the Commission is currently Dr. Azizullah Lodin and the Vice-President is General Ayob Asil.

In 2009, for the first time, the IEC is solely responsible for organizing the elections. As an interim measure during the Transitional Period, the 2004 Presidential and 2005 Parliamentary and Provincial Council Elections were conducted and supervised by the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB). This was a joint institution composed of the Afghan government and the United Nations. At the end of 2005, the JEMB was dissolved by Presidential Decree and all its responsibilities were transferred to the IEC.

The Independent Election Commission Secretariat (IECS)

The IEC Secretariat (IECS) is the executive body of the Electoral Commission, responsible for developing and implementing operational plans, regulations and procedures.

The IECS is headed by a Chief Executive Officer who is appointed by the IEC Chairman, with the approval of the President of Afghanistan. The Chief Executive Officer and his two Deputies in charge of Administration and Operations, assume responsibility for the day-to-day management of the elections.

The IECS implements all election activities from its headquarters in Kabul, its eight Regional Offices and 34 Provincial Offices. Under the supervision of Provincial Electoral Officers (PEOs), District Field Coordinators (DFCs) bear responsibility for the organization and supervision of the elections in each district.

International Support

International support is provided through the United Nations Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has delegated this task to the Managing Team of the United Nations Development Fund Programme Electoral Project (UNDP ELECT). The international community provides technical advice and assistance to the IEC at its headquarters, through the provision of technical advisors. The technical advisors team, composed of electoral experts from the United Nations (UN), the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) and The Asia Foundation (TAF), is coordinated by a UNDP ELECT Chief Electoral Advisor.

Electoral Timeline

The election date was announced on 4 March 2009, with polling scheduled for 20 August 2009. At the time of writing, the schedule is as follows:

Voter Registration

According to the Electoral Law currently in force, voter eligibility requires Afghan citizenship at the time of registration, a minimum age of 18 on the day of the election, and registration with the IEC. It also requires that the voter has not been legally deprived of civil or political rights by a court of competent jurisdiction.

In preparation for the Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Elections, voter registration exercises were carried out in 2003 and 2004, with a top-up exercise in 2005, producing a total of 12.5 million voter cards. Despite recommendations from many quarters since 2005 in favour of establishing an accurate voter register, the IEC, in consultation with the President, made a final decision not to undertake an exercise to produce a voter list (VL) in July 2008. This was justified at the time by the security risk posed in undertaking a fully-fledged registration process. Instead, a top-up exercise was organized in four phases – it was aimed at voters coming of age for the 2009 elections, those who lost their cards since 2004-5, and those who changed residence. This created some 4.5 million additional voter cards (VCs).

A biometrics-based (fingerprint) mechanism to detect multiple registration among the new records has been put in place for the Voter Registration Update (VRU) of 2009, but the new records cannot be matched with the 2004-2005 records and will not be of use for these 2009 elections, where no VL will be printed or displayed at any stage anywhere in the country.

Candidate Nomination

The two week period to submit nominations for candidates for both elections started on 25th April. This list was made public and followed by an official challenge period lasting 5 weeks. Complaints and challenges to the eligibility of candidates were submitted to the Election Complaints Commission. Some 91 candidates voluntarily withdrew during this time. The ECC excluded another 56 candidates from the final list – 2 Presidential, 1 Vice-presidential, and 53 Provincial Council candidates. Most were excluded for having links to illegal armed groups, as specified under Article 15.3 of the Electoral Law. One candidate was excluded for having been convicted of crimes, and another for having dual nationality. The IEC announced a final list of 41 candidates for the Presidential and 3195 candidates for the Provincial Council elections.

Polling and Counting

Nearly 7,000 Polling Centres (PC) are planned, each containing several Polling Stations (PS) which will cater to about 600 voters each. There will be separate polling stations for men and women. To be able to vote, a person will have to present their Voter Card at the Polling Station. However, he/she will not be allowed to vote in the Provincial Election, if their voter card indicates that they were registered in a different province.

The nomadic population (Kuchis) will be allocated some Polling Stations in different Polling Centres across the country and will only vote in the Presidential Election.

District Field Coordinators (DFC) in the districts will supervise PC and PS officials responsible for running the elections in their respective Polling Centres/Polling Stations.

Voting will start at 0700 (7am) and will finish at 1600 (4pm). The voter will receive one ballot for the Presidential Election and one ballot for the Provincial Council Election (except for the Kuchi voters who will cast their ballots for the Presidential Elections only). As a first step, the voter will have the index finger of their right hand marked with indelible ink, they will then be given the two ballots which they will mark in secret, and they will then insert them into separate ballot boxes.

Special Needs Voting

For the first time, there will also be Special Needs Voting to serve hospitalized voters, as well as prisoners not deprived of their civil and political rights by a competent tribunal. For this purpose, the nearest Polling Centres to hospitals and prisons will take ballot boxes there, to enable voting, with the appropriate guarantees of custody.

Military voters in army barracks and voters in Internally Displaced Persons camps will cast their ballots in the PCs nearest to their barracks and camps, where additional PSs will be set up to serve them.

Counting

Unlike past elections, where counting was undertaken at regional centres (2004) and provincial counting centres (2005), this year, counting will take place at the Polling Stations themselves. The IEC plans to have male polling staff count the ballots cast in male PSs, and female polling staff to count the ballots cast in female PSs. In areas where, for socio-cultural reasons, there will not be enough female polling staff to undertake counting, male polling staff will do it.

The counting in Kabul will be performed in two different stages: 1) Ballots for the Presidential Election will be counted immediately after the closing of the PSs on Election Day. 2) Ballots for the Provincial Election will start to be counted on the morning of the 21 August.