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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Terming the recent remarks by the European Union (EU) ambassador a kind of interference in the country’s election affairs, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said Wednesday that the EU ambassador’s statement is against diplomatic norms and it will be his personal point of view.
The EU envoy, Francis Michael Milibon recently said the Afghan election system needs huge reforms and that the reforms can once again raise people trust on the election panels.
The IEC spokesman, Noor Mohammad Noor, said Milibon’s remarks are inconsistent with diplomatic norms and it might be his own point of view. “The European Union envoy recently commented on Afghan election which was against diplomatic norms as he wanted have a kind of interference in Afghanistan’s national affairs such as election,” Noor said as quoted by Radio Azadi.
The European Union envoy recently told a local TV channel that they were not ready to pay even one dollar for parliamentary elections sans reforms in election commissions.
European Union has been main supporter of Afghan election along with US, Canada, Japan and a number of other countries. It is said that the European Union has spent billions of dollars during previous presidential elections in the country.
In the meantime, head of Election Watch Afghanistan (EWA), Jandad Spin Ghar, termed the EU’s financial support as crucial and said there are two reasons that prove his claim. “The first reason is that the EU was the main donor of Afghan election in the past and it will remain the main donor in future as well, and the second reason is that they monitored the previous presidential election therefore they don’t want the past mistakes to be repeated in upcoming parliamentary election in the country,” he said as quoted by Radio Azadi.
He said that cut in fund by the EU can hamper the election and also it can damage its legitimacy.
According to the Constitution, the parliamentary election shall be held in upcoming three months but a number of reports suggest that the election will not be held in its scheduled time.
The IEC has said that they were discussing the exact time of the parliamentary election with the presidential palace and they have sent a draft in this regard to the president.
Lack of financial resources, security challenges and lack of accurate statistics about population are main reasons that, according to a number of analysts, would hinder the upcoming parliamentary election in Afghanistan. Analysts also believe that the Afghan election should be kept at bay from interferes of outsiders or foreigners in order to hold an election that garner the common masses’ trust.
