Tuesday December 24, 2013
Kabul (BNA) The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has said that comprehensive security measures have been undertaken to ensure security of the upcoming presidential and provincial council’s elections scheduled to be convened on 5th April 2014.
Elaborating on the topic, Sediq Seddiqi, spokesman to the Ministry of Interior said, “It’s expected that up to 400,000 security personnel take security responsibilities of the upcoming presidential elections including the Afghan National Army, National Police and Afghan Local Police, adding that election security program is on the execution phase and the special commission assigned for election security is responsible to remove security threats and seek cooperation of local people in the provinces with high security risk to support national police in providing efficient security coverage to coming poll.” “ANA and ANP soldiers have extended their military operations in those areas where Taliban keep presence and our assessments show that the coming elections will be conducted better than 2009 elections, an official from the Ministry of Interior said.”
“Currently operations are going on in the provinces of Kunar, Nuristan, Logar and Helmand and we hope that with the conduction of these operations security threats are noticeably reduced, Sediq added, “Only 400 polling booths aren’t under police control and it’s hoped that within the next four months the threats eliminated.”
In the meantime, the Election Commission has expressed satisfaction over the security measures formulated by the Afghan security institutions to protect the coming elections. “Preemptive measures needed to ensure safety and security of the upcoming elections, security could lay positive impacts on larger public participation and it will provide credibility to the polling, FEFA Executive Director Jandad Spinghar said.” “There is alternative except holding of the election as per scheduled, the president and members of the parliament should be elected on the basis of public ballots, analyst Sahib Nazar Muradi added.” “The situation is much different today if we compare the upcoming elections to the previous one, during the previous elections security situations were quite tense in various regions of the country, but today the overall territory of the country is covered by the Afghan National Security Forces, democratic and civil society institutions are working with full force and they can oversee the elections, Mr. Muradi further said.” Meanwhile, the Afghan people have expressed hope that holding of the upcoming presidential and provincial councils elections will lead the country towards sustainable democracy, socioeconomic opulence, longstanding peace and security.
“Holding of the upcoming elections hauls major significance to the Afghan people, but security remains as an important challenge on way of the elections, so the Afghan security forces should utilize all available sources to protect the polling from the security threats, local resident Farzana said.” This came after the previous elections followed much criticism due to insecurity and frauds and the upcoming elections will further support the country to commute towards the long term peace and security following withdraw of international forces in 2014. The government should strive to make sure that the election is held of free, fair and transparent manner so that Afghanistan moves towards democracy and economic prosperity and peaceful transition of power.
