KABUL (Pajhwok): Provincial councils (PCs) members in 26 provinces on Sunday voted to elect their administrative boards and the ballot was postponed till Monday in the remaining eight provinces mostly due to a lack of quorum, an official said.
The elections passed off peacefully in Kabul, Parwan, Panjshir, Kapisa, Baghlan, Takhar, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Jawzjan, Balkh, Faryab, Badghis, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktia, Khost, Paktika, Nangarhar, Kunar, Laghman, Bamayan, Ghor and Logar provinces, where provincial council heads, deputy heads and secretaries were elected.
However, the voting in Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Ghanzi, Herat, Sar-i-Pul, Daikundi, Samangan and Nuristan was deferred to next day as most PC members did not turn out.
Pajhwok Afghan News found that no female was elected as provincial council head in the 26 provinces. Previously, the Bamyan PC was headed by a female member and the deputy heads of Zabul and Punjshir PCs and secretaries of Kabul, Ghor, Jawzjan, Kunduz, Kandahar and Balkh provinces were females.
Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) spokesperson Munera Yousufzada told Pajhwok Afghan News the decision to hold the elections came during an important meeting presided over by President Ashraf Ghani last week.
She said the ministers of interior and defense, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) head, Independent Election Commission (IEC) chief and IDLG officials were also present at the meeting.
All the governors of 34 provinces, provincial council heads, police chiefs, provincial NDS heads, provincial IEC chiefs and local officials took part in the video conference meeting, Yousufzada said.
The meeting decided to conduct elections for administrative boards of all provincial councils on November 15, she added. President Ghani insisted the elections could not be delayed and the process should be transparent.
Governors were responsible for security to ensure that the ballot was transparent, she added. IDLG invited all local and foreign observers to oversee the election process for the sake of transparency.
Fuente: http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2015/11/15/pc-administrative-board-voting-defe...
Autor: Ahmad Shah Erfanyar
