Ziaulhaq Amarkhail, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Secretariat, reported on Friday that a high level security meeting would be held in the coming days to evaluate the security preparations for the Presidential and Provincial elections to be held on April 5 of next year.
Mr. Amarkhail said the meeting would be attended by Bismillah Khan Muhammadi, Minister of Defense; Mujtaba Patang, acting Interior Minister; and General Hassamuddin Hassam, acting Chairman of the National Directorate of Security (NDS). Mr. Amarkhail refrained from mentioning the exact date and location as a security precaution.
At the meeting, the participants are expected to review current security arrangements for the voter registration process and chalk out a strategy to secure the areas that are under security threat. Mr. Amarkhail said that it was important to improve security around the elections to build public trust and encourage people to participate.
Concern over the security situation around the elections have been mounting. There are still several areas across the country where voter registration centres have not been opened due to security threats.
"Voters' registration centers have not been opened in at least 10 districts due to security threats. The security institutions should be honest about whether they are capable of tackling the security threats in these districts or not," Mr. Amarkhail told TOLOnews.
Previously, the former IEC head, Fazel Ahmad Manavi, spoke out in criticism of the security institutions, saying that they were downplaying the threats facing the elections and exaggerating their abilities to manage them.
"Exaggerations and deceptions have been common on this issue. Considering past experience, we can assume what the security condition of the country will be like in the next year, and we should be careful in this respect, otherwise, the consequences will be disastrous and no one will take responsibility," Mr. Manavi said.
According to reports, the IEC has referred a list of at least 7,000 polling stations to security officials from which 259 polling centers were declared insecure. But the former IEC chief said that the real number of actual number of threatened polling sites is significantly higher than the officials said.
Officials from the Afghan Ministry of Interior (MoI) rebuked Mr. Manavi's claims and said that the ANSF is fully capable of tackling security threats during the elections.
"Afghan security forces have the ability to provide security for the elections, we have eight months, which is enough time for the ANSF to take the necessary measures to secure those polling stations that are under threats. The assertions to the contrary are personal statements of individuals and nothing more than that," said Sidiq Sidiqi, the MoI spokesman.
Mr. Sidiqi assured that the Afghan security forces would be seeking help from the international forces for the upcoming elections.
Ahead of next spring, however, there are still issues to be resolved other than those related to security. The lack of a sufficient monitoring system for campaigns, the regulations on candidate campaign expenditures and the nominations of Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) members are all still matters waiting to be sorted out.