[Tolo News] Legislators said on Wednesday that many people were prevented from voting in the elections because of ballot shortages and that the Independent Election Commission (IEC) must answer as to why this happened."They must be summoned to parliament and explain why they had taken such decisions that led to challenges during elections," Member of Parliament from Zabul province, Hamidullah Tokhi, said.
Alongside this challenge, MPs praised the security forces for their duties during Election Day and urged that parliament must honor them because they were the reason that people came out to vote.
"The parliament administrative board will undertake necessary measures to invite Minister of Interior, Minister of Defense and NDS chief to the house so that we can honor the endeavors of the Afghan cops during elections," parliament speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said.
Head of Parliamentary Commission for Internal Security Mir Dad Khan Nejrabi says honoring the security forces should be stalled because there needs to be clarification on what extent security forces engaged in riggings. After investigating this case, then it would be proper to appreciate their duties.
"In some areas security forces have filled ballot boxes," Nejrabi said. "We must investigate this first before honoring their services. And we must not hurry the investigation process either."
Ghazni MP, Arifullah Rahmani, agrees with Nejrabi stating that the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) must investigate these cases of fraud.
"The ECC must seriously investigate into the cases of frauds," Rahmani said.
In response to allegations, chairman of the IEC of Afghanistan Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said violations reported during the election process involved local powerbrokers, as well as government and IEC employees.
"We must acknowledge and address where fraud and violations took place," Nuristani said. "People must not distort results with premature speculations."
The ECC states that candidates held over 320 events around the country during campaign season. And deny that they have withheld any information from the public, saying that officials were unable to prevent fraud on Election Day.