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KABUL: Ten former commissioners of the Afghan electoral commissions have been jailed each for five years over holding a chaotic and fraudulent parliamentary election in 2018 that triggered the country into deep ailment.
Attorney General Office Spokesman, Jamshid Rasouli confirmed the report, saying ten former commissioners of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Independent Electoral Complaint Commission (IECC) were each sentenced to five years in jail by the Primary Court of the Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Justice Center (ACJC) on Tuesday.
Among the ten sentenced commissioners are former IEC Chairman, Abdul Badi Sayyad, along with his six colleagues and Abdul Azizi Aryaee, Chairman of IECC along with his two colleagues. Two more IECC commissioners Ghulam Dastgeer and Ali-Reza Rohani were not part of this trial.
Two more election officials including IEC former Secretary, Ahmad Shah Zamanzai and former IEC IT manager, Ibrahim Sadat were acquitted by the court.
Rasouli said the ruling was announced after a two-day open trial and the court decision has been not the final and these commissioners have the right to appeal against the ruling.
“The commissioners were accused of increasing the decreasing the votes of candidates, changing documents and misusing their legal authorities” during the parliamentary elections, held in October 2018.
These electoral commissioners were sacked by President Ashraf Ghani in February this year, following the 2018 chaotic parliamentary elections, which were marred by allegations of fraud and other irregularities and with its final results delayed nearly six months from its original date.
Few days after their dismissal the Attorney General’s office barred these commissioners from leaving the country.
