IEC warns NOGs’ of financial support to parliament candidates

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AT-KABUL: The Independent Election Commission (IEC) warns the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could not assist the parliamentary election candidates more than 100,000 Afghanis.

“Political parties and other organizations can only finance the candidates up to 100,000 Afghanis for their electoral campaigns. The assistance should be clear and transparent,” said Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, spokesman of the election commission.

The Democracy for Afghanistan non-governmental organization is reportedly assisting young parliament candidates up to 30,000 dollars each candidate.

Members of parliament said Tuesday that the organization planned to help the young candidates win the election under the name of coordination among youth. The Democracy for Afghanistan has two branch offices in two parts of Kabul city and is targeting certain candidates.

Dawood Noorzai and some others close to President Ghani are heading the organization, according to reports.

Noorzai said they were helping the educated young candidates who have useful programs, rejecting financial assistance.

“We have no donor and run the organization through our private properties. So far, 900 candidates have been registered in the organization,” he said.

The independent election complaints commission says it would investigate the matter and punish the candidates if they had received more than 100,000 Afs from the organization.

This is not clear whether the Democracy for Afghanistan works under the ministry of justice or ministry of economy, but the non-governmental organizations can only finance economic and social projects.

“This is unclear, and this organization as well as the electoral complaint commission need to provide details about this,” said Yousuf Rashid, head of the Free and Fair Election Forum for Afghanistan (FEFA).