Alwaght -Afghanistan’s last parliamentary election was held in 2010 and according to the constitution, the next election was to be held in 2015. But the electoral law review, as well as the disputes that followed the 2014 presidential election, delayed the vote for three years. Now the country is set to hold a parliamentary election on October 20 along with the provincial councils.
Some 9 million citizens have registered for the vote— 64 percent men and 36 percent women.
How much is spent on the lawmakers’ pays and benefits?
The salaries and benefits are provided in accordance with the senior officials' wage law. The privileges include the monthly wages, housing pays, political passport, guards, transportation, and daily expenses.
According to the ministry of finance, the annual expenditures of the lawmakers are over 1.6 billion afghanis (around $21 million), paid from the national budget.
Khudai Nazar Nusrat, the head of the Afghanistan National Assembly (parliament), said that at the present time each lawmaker receives 300,000 afghnais ($4,000) in salaries and benefits every month.
Why do some rich people become candidates for the parliament seats?
The wages and benefits for lawmakers in a country as poor as Afghanistan are ideal. But some argue that the high pays are not the only motivation to join the race to the parliament.
Ramazan Bashardost, the former planning minister and the current member of the parliament, believes that many of the present candidates and also the present lawmakers do not care much about the wages and privileges of regeneration. They are, he continues, rich people who seek legal immunity through becoming parliamentarians.
“For some of the upcoming election’s candidates, the parliamentary immunity is the main goal, and the 300,000 afghanis do not even equal a chickpea to them.”
Akram Afzali, the current Executive Director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan and Chairman of the Oversight Commission on Access to Information, asserts that some of the members of parliament abuse their legal immunity, adding that they provide a cover to their relatives who are involved in crimes or corruption. He continues that the legislative immunity has a broad explanation allowing the representatives to abuse their leverages. The government, according to him, escapes its responsibilities as the lawmakers are exempted from criminal prosecution.
They also use their influence to get some advantages, including the intervention in the state organizations’ employments. The intervention mainly affects public service organizations. The lawmakers are said to intervene in the local officials’ employment processes.
Some others have construction and services companies and, using their influence, they have rigged huge bids in the government tenders. The profits of the government projects are worth of hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. A large part of the profits is paid to the backing lawmakers.
How is the security of the elections provided?
The security of the forthcoming elections is the main challenge the government is now facing. During the voter registration days, an array of attacks hit the registration centers in Helmand and Nangarhar provinces. The country also sustained suicide bombings attacking the campaign headquarters.
In the last incident, candidate Abdul Jabar Qahraman was killed on Wednesday by a bomb planted under his chair in the southern province of Helmand. Taliban terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that also killed three people and wounded seven more.
The MP was the 10th candidate killed in the past two months, with two more abducted and four wounded by the terrorists.
All these raids give the Afghans every reason to grow extremely worried as the elections approach.
The October 20 elections becomes more important as the nation is ahead of the presidential election in next year. The elections are a test of the government’s capacity to secure peace and stability in the country and so assure the international community about its potentials.
The interior and defense ministries, as well as the National Security Council, have been actively working over the past three months to provide a secure milieu for the elections. The security officials have said that some 54,000 forces from the police, army, and security apparatuses are expected to mobilize for security.
The police are tasked with securing the polling stations and also they are planned to establish a security belt around the voting stations. The second security belt will be set up by the army troops. The air force is expected to air-patrol the polling stations and the regions around during the whole election day. The routes leading to the voting stations will be strictly watched from air and ground in a bid to prevent attacks by the militants.
The security forces are scheduled to watch the situation for any disruptive conspiracies. 21,000 polling stations will be available to voters. Each station is said to need at least one female police to search the women and also secure the female workers of the process.
Who is supervising the elections?
According to the election law’s article 102, the voting operation will take place within a single day and the domestic observers, political parties’ representatives, NGOs, free media, and the international organizations can supervise the elections. So, the key supervisors will be Integrity Watch Afghanistan, Free and Fair Election Forum, and Transparent Election Foundation. The law permits the NGOs, International organizations, media, and political parties to apply for “supervision accreditations” and observe the elections. They are entitled to criticize or file a complaint against possible violations. Independent Election Commission has said that so far 53 organizations received accreditations. It put the number of observers at 52,000. IEC also maintained that so far 9 independent foreign observers took their accreditations. The embassies and foreign organizations also applied for supervision permits.
How much is the cost?
Afghanistan’s elections are one of the most costly elections in the region. Figures suggest that over $1 billion was spent over the past decade on three presidential and two parliamentary elections. Major share of the budget is provided by the foreign countries. For this election, the government provided only $11 million of the $115 million vote budget.
The budget is provided by foreign donors under UN supervision, and the IEC has no role in the funding. Kobra Rezaee, the IEC spokeswoman said that so far $47 million was spent on the election preparations, adding that further $57 million will be spent by the United Nations Development Program.
