Taliban has dissolved Afghanistan’s election commission, a panel that supervised polls during the previous Western-backed administration, says a spokesman for the govern-ment.
“There is no need for these commissions to exist and operate,” spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Saturday, re-ferring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Elec-toral Complaints Commis-sion.
“If we ever feel a need, the Islamic Emirate will revive these commissions.”
The Taliban swept to power in August as a West-ern-backed government im-ploded in the final stages of a chaotic military with-drawal by the United States.
Established in 2006, the IEC was mandated to ad-minister and supervise all types of elections, including presidential, according to the commission’s website.
“They have taken this deci-sion in a hurry … and dis-solving the commission would have huge conse-quences,” Aurangzeb, who headed the panel up until the fall of the previous re-gime, told the AFP news agency.
“If this structure does not exist, I am 100 percent sure that Afghanistan’s problems will never be solved as there won’t be any elections,” said Aurangzeb, who like many Afghans goes by only one name.—Agencies
