AT-KABUL: The Independent Electoral Complaints Commission, says it has so far registered 133 cases of complaints against the parliament candidates.
“So far, 133 complaint cases have been registered on the premature campaigns, from which, 89 cases have been investigated and the rest are under investigation,” the commission spokesman, Ali Reza Rouhani said Sunday.
The October 20th parliamentary election campaign officially began on Friday, September 28th and more than 2,5000 candidates has started explaining their programs and trying to attract more supporters since then.
Posting banners and posters on the walls and doors of houses and public utilities including traffic signals, receiving money from foreign sources, bothering each other’s campaigners, use of government sources, disordering the public order, and disobeying religious, ethnic and linguistic red lines are called violation of the electoral law and the violators will be fined from 5,000 to 50,000 Afs.
The complaints commission has banned government employees, especially security and defense officers from attending electoral campaigns.
There are reports of trampling the electoral law by some candidates in different provinces including the capital Kabul.
The Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA), says that the candidates were not informed before about the electoral law, and they mistakenly violate the law.
“If we see now some candidates trampling the law, is because they were not informed before the start of campaign,” said Yousuf Rashid, head of FEFA.
The complaints commission says that according to law, it does not have to register violations during the campaign, but emphasizes that people can contact to the complaint offices in Kabul and provinces.