Kuchis say IEC decision to deprive them of voting

KABUL tribesmen (nomads) say many of them would be unable to cast their votes during the Oct 20 parliamentary elections after moving from cold to warm areas.

They ask the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to review its policy regarding Kuchis.

However, the IEC says Kuchis should cast their votes in areas where they have registered as voters.

The Wolesi Jirga elections would take place in all provinces except Ghazni province on Oct 20.

However, some Kuchis who received their voter cards in cold areas in summer have now migrated to warm areas. They would be unable to move back to their summer areas to vote on the election day.

Haji Gulmarjan Faroqzai, head of the Kuchis Council in southeastern Khost province, told Pajhwok Afghan News that around 2,000 Kuchi families including his had registered in the voter registration process in central Logar province when they were living there in summer. He said now all these Kuchis had shifted to Khost province.

About moving back to the areas where they have obtained voter cards, Faroqzai said: “When we were registering as voters, the IEC told us that we can vote wherever we want, but now they say we can vote only in areas where we have taken our voter card.”

He said the IEC decision regarding Kuchis was a matter of concern as they used to shift their homes from cold to warm areas.

“It is very difficult for us to go to another province for one day in order to vote, we have no money to finance our travel costs,” he said.

A large number of Kuchis would be deprived of participating in the elections if the IEC did not change its decision, he concluded.

Haidar Jan Naimzai, a Kuchi candidate from capital Kabul, also expressed concern over the IEC decision and said the commission during the voter registration process had told them that nomads could vote in any provinces because they were not permanent residents of an area.

He said the IEC decision was taken at a time when most of the Kuchis have moved from previous areas to other warm areas.

“It is a big problem and this decision of the IEC would deprive most of the Kuchis from casting their votes,” he added.

Abdullah Wahidyar, spokesman for the Independent Kuchis Department, said: “It is really a serious problem, we also do not know how the IEC would solve this problem.”

He further said they shared the problem with the election commission when the voter registration process commenced, but the problem remained.

However, Zabihullah Sadat, deputy IEC spokesman, said all people including Kuchis should vote in their own areas according to the commission’s policy. He said the IEC could not change its policy regarding voters and polling stations.

“We had talked with Kuchi representatives during the voter registration process and they had agreed with us that they would vote in polling stations where they had taken the voter card,” he said.

“It is not right we told them they can vote wherever they want, we never told them this,” he said, adding Kuchis themselves should resolve this problem.

More than 168,000 of Kuchis have registered in the voter registration process across the country.

The whole country for Kuchis, who have eight women and 36 men as their representatives, is one electoral district, but for ordinary people, each province is one electoral constituency.

mds/ma

Views: 6