Afghanistan: Presidential election postponed due to technical glitches

Afghanistan’s election commission on Wednesday confirmed that the presidential election, initially scheduled for April, will be postponed for several months due to technical glitches.

In a statement, the election commission said that postponement of the presidential election is being done to allow time to fix technical problems that surfaced during October’s parliamentary elections.

Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy spokesman for the election commission, said that more time is needed to train staff on a biometric identification system designed to reduce fraud. He further added that verification of voter lists also requires more time.

It is to be noted that no new date for the presidential poll has been set. The last presidential election was held in 2014.

During the October elections, the frequent delays were reported because registered voters were unable to find their names on voter lists and staff members who were trained on the new identification system didn’t show up at the polling locations.

Parliamentary elections were fraught with delays after the few staff trained on the biometric system did not show up at the polling booths and countless registered voters could not find their names on voter lists. Polling had to continue for a second day after hundreds of polling stations opened several hours late. Several legal complaints were also filed to challenge the results.

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