Paktika IEC workers unpaid since 2018 polls

SHARANA (Pajhwok): A number of Independent Election Commission (IEC) workers in southern Paktika province say the commission has not paid them their salaries following 2018 Wolesi Jirga elections.

The Wolesi Jirga elections were held in October 2018 while the presidential election conducted on September 28, 2019.

Ilham Noori, who worked as election manager for Shakin district during Wolesi Jirga elections, told Pajhwok Afghan News that two years have passed since the parliamentary vote, but their wages remained unpaid.

“There were five polling stations in Shakin during the elections where 210 people were working, but none of them have received their salaries as yet,” he added.

Mohammad Sadiq, who was an election worker in Warmami district, said that around 2,600 people who worked during the elections in Paktia, had not received their wages so far.

“Dozens of people worked for the elections in this district, whose salaries ranged from 3,000 afghanis to 8,000 afghanis”, he said.

“I worked as an assistant to the IEC, now people knock at my house’s door everyday, one of them took away one of my sheep as his salary,” he said.

A number of other election workers in the province held similar views and asked the officials concerned to respond to their problem.

Mohammad Bilal Shahbaz, IEC acting chief, acknowledged that the wages of 2,600 workers of the commission, who worked in 2018 Wolesi Jirga election, had not been paid as yet.

“These salaries are delayed due to lack of telephone services in districts and the spread of coronavirus,” he said. Shahbaz said salaries of their workers would be paid in near future.

IEC workers in some other provinces have also been complaining about their unpaid salaries by the commission.

mds/ma

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