Naeem Asghari, program manager for Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) said that if the Independent Election Commission (IEC) does not hire more females for the female polling sites it would be better off for those sites to be closed.
Mr. Asghari explains that during the first round of elections widespread fraud took place at voting sites specifically for women where men would go in and vote in place of the females.
“How is possible for a polling site to have 300 ballots casted by women when the IEC failed to find five female employees work at the site? This is not justifiable,” Asghari said. “The IEC must employ females for this runoff; otherwise, the female sites must be closed.”
Said Agha Sancharaki, a member of Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign team, adds to the matter emphasizing that if the IEC puts effort in, they will be able to find female employees for the female polling sites.
“The IEC can find female employees for the sites if they make the effort , but unfortunately, I think the IEC is making excuses or maybe they have some other intentions, otherwise, the commission should be able to find female employees considering the big pool of qualified women available” Sancharaki said.
Member of Ashraf Ghani-Ahmadzai’s team, Abbas Nawyan, says the absence of women at the female voting sites will result in widespread fraud for the runoff similar to the first round where ballot boxes were stuffed in favor of a specific candidate and where men used female voting cards to vote in their name.
Mr. Nawyan suggested that the “IEC can hire female employees along with her Mahram, (husband, brother, etc) and open polling sites near her residence. And if that doesn’t work, then the IEC should close the sites.”
IEC Spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor said that the IEC efforts in hiring female employees in rural areas of the country have been unsuccessful.
“The IEC has allocated over 9,000 polling sites for females all over Afghanistan and we have worked with both the civil society and government of Afghanistan to hire females for the sites but due to some cultural restrictions, females are not ready to work” Noor said.
For the 9,000 female voting sites, the IEC needs around 35,000 to 40,000 female employees, but illiteracy among women, insecurity and bad traditions restrict women from working.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/lack-female-employees-polling-sites
