Less than three months ahead of the elections, civil society groups and media activists on Monday expressed serious concern with the failure of the government to pass an Access to Information Law beforehand.
The activists on Monday suggested that they believed some specific groups within and outside the government benefited from the law to not being approved and had enough influence to ensure it would not be before the April vote.
The draft of the Law has remained in limbo for over a year, with the Ministry of Culture and Information and Ministry of Justice failing to see it through the legislator. Now, activists have called on President Hamid Karzai to step in.
"We insist that the Presidential Palace sign the law as a legislative decree and enact it," Deputy Director of Nai's Media Watch Sediqullah Tawhidi said. "In order to help journalists, reporters, civil society activists, election related organizations, the organizations fighting corruption and us."
The importance of the National Assembly in approving the law was acknowledged, but the activists maintained that it would not be passed in time as Parliament was to go on its winter holiday soon.
"We ask his excellencey the President to sign it as a legislative decree ahead of the election, as it is necessary, and then the full process of the law should be completed after the beginning of the next session of the National Assembly," the Director of Civil Society and Human Rights Network (CSHRN) named Naeem Nazari said.
Afghan journalists have expressed anxieties about the adversities they may face in covering the upcoming elections without the backing of the Access to Information Law.
"Most officials create problems whenever an issue is not in favor of them and they are not ready to answer journalists," said Sajad Mohammadi, an Afghan journalist.
In many cases, journalists report waiting for days or weeks to get basic information from government agencies.
As the role and functioning of media in Afghanistan continues to evolve, advocates of the press expect progress to be codified in law. Whether it happens before or after the April vote, however, the introduction of a Access to Information Law will be a major step for the Afghan media.