IEC Probes Reports About Private Election Counselling Bureau

IEC officials said this was in violation of the law and that they have handed over a report on the matter to security institutions.
The IEC’s head of secretariat Sayed Hafizullah Hashemi said that the commission is also still investigating these claims.
“The commission has received some information about former and incumbent employees of the secretariat and the information was shared with security officials at a meeting on June 24; we shared the report with the deputy head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and asked the relevant body to cooperate with us in this respect in order to prevent corruption and fraud in the elections,” said IEC commissioner Maliha Hassan.
Based on the law, high-ranking IEC officials and former members of the commission are not allowed to engage in personal election work outside of the commission. But there are reports which indicate that at least one former member and two incumbent employees of the IEC have established an election counselling office in Kabul where they allegedly provide advice to candidates.
Meanwhile, the head of the finance department at the counselling office said the company license is registered in Noor Mohammad Noor’s name. Noor was the former spokesman of the election commission.
“Based on the civil service and election laws, employees are obliged to uphold and protect the secrets of the institution where they work. Therefore, any kind of collaboration with companies which operate outside the framework of the institution is illegal. Based on article six (of the election law), this could be categorized as corruption,” said legal expert Ainuddin Bahaduri.
Election monitoring groups meanwhile said the establishment of private election counselling offices by incumbent and former members of the election commission can pave the way for electoral fraud.