As of: December 26th, 2021 01:06 am
The Taliban have closed key institutions for holding elections in Afghanistan. Critics accuse the radical Islamists of wanting to secure their power “through bullets and not through elections”.
A good four months after taking power in Afghanistan, the radical Islamic Taliban dissolved the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Election Complaints Commission. There is no need for these bodies, said Taliban government spokesman Bilal Karimi. He has also said that the Ministries for Peace and Parliamentary Affairs have recently been abolished.
The election commission, established in 2006, had the task of organizing and monitoring presidential and other elections in Afghanistan.
Sharp criticism from former government official
Former Afghan government representative Halim Fidai condemned the dissolution of the commission. The decision shows that the Taliban “do not believe in democracy”. The former governor accused the radical Islamists of securing their power “through bullets and not through elections”.
The Taliban had regained power in Afghanistan in mid-August. So far, no country has officially recognized the Taliban leadership, which assumed the promise that its new rule over the country would be more lenient than it was in the 1990s. Decisions such as the re-establishment of a ministry for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice, however, raised doubts about the assurances of the Islamists.