Afghan election chaos: what the law says

Afghan election chaos: what the law says

Now there’s not just division between the candidates, a dispute has broken out between the two election commissions charged with supervising the process.

The Election Complaints Commission, which has been investigating complains for eight weeks, and carried out a partial recount, is about to handover its findings to the Independent Election Commission, the body that organised the election. The ECC will simultaneously publish its findings on its website (at 17:00 Afghan time, 12:30GMT) , because it has no faith in the IEC to properly announce and implement its findings. I am told these rulings will be titled “orders” – the ECC wants to make it quite clear that it believes the IEC has no right to challenge them.

The IEC chairman Dr Azizullah Ludin told me by phone his body is the only one that can certify and announce final results.

Diplomats, politicans, officials and journalists are now dusting off their copies of Afghanistan’s electoral law.

Article 49 says:

“[The IEC] is responsible for announcing the certified election results in each constituency once all counting procedures have been completed and after all complaints concerning polling and counting have been adjudicated by the ECC.”

 

“The results of the election are final and binding once they have been certified by the Commission.”

But in its article about the ECC (Article 52), the law says:

“The ECC shall develop and implement its own procedures for considering and adjudicating complaints.”

 

“The ECC may consider matters otherwise within its jurisdiction on its own initiative and in the absence of a formal complaint or challenge. Decisions of the ECC shall be final.”

All the relevant legal documents are available on both commissions’ web sites:

• Election Complaints Commission - iec.org.af
• Independent Election Commission - ecc.org.af