TEFA’s observation from IECC’s procedures for addressing electoral objections and complaints

On July.14th.2018, team TEFA comprising Mr. Naeem Ayubzada (Director of TEFA), Mr. Baryalai Haqjo (TEFA’s Communication Officer), and Mr. Ismail Zhian (TEFA’s Program officer) paid the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission a warm visit and met with IECC’s head Mr. Aziz Aryayi who explicitly spoke on the newly developed system and reforms brought to the concerned commission, and Mr. Fayez (Commissioner at IECC) to discuss the institutionalized procedures for addressing the electoral objections and complaints from a clear and practical perspective. As per Mr. Aziz Aryayi’s inputs, the newly institutionalized system has been developed deliberately and has a systematic order for addressing the electoral objections and complaints pertaining to those candidates who are either member or commander of illegally armed men/groups. This system is designed and categorized into 9 main stages by Mr. Aziz Aryayi which are mentioned below:
1. Reception: providing informative banners and brochures, instructing clients and distributing tokens.
2. Registration Department: accountable for receiving objections and complaints, entering information into database, and developing comprehensive reports based on the given statistics concerning different cases.
3. Classification Department: accountable for classifying cases on the basis of type, theme, and preference.
4. Case Evaluation Department: This department is assigned to physically and technically check all the relevant documents, conclude the results and hand it over for analysis.
5. Legal Analysis of Complaints Department: The department is responsible for analyzing the Case evaluation Department’s work, documents analysis, legal citation, and providing recommendations for decision making process.
6. Amendment Department: Accountable for rectifying errors in complicated documents, reviewing the results of Legal Analysis of Complaints Department, and developing decisions draft.
7. Decision Making Department: This department will present the cases in the commission assembly, gather vote on the presented cases, and will eventually conclude by having the decision made by the commission members.
8. Dissemination Department: Sharing the commission’s decision with the involved parties, IEC, other electoral stakeholders and on IECC’s website.
9. Follow-up and Implementation Department: This department is responsible for pursuing the commission’s decisions and to make sure they are being properly implemented.
Soon after Mr. Aziz Aryayi explicitly elaborated the system, Mr. Fayez gave team TEFA a complete tour of all the involved departments one by one. Amidst the tour, the departmental staff explained what they were currently working on and how efficient and effective the new system is, and Mr. Naeem Ayubzada had his remarks on how the system can contribute to better election holding and transparency and complemented their work. All the departments were being well supervised by Mr. Fayez to avoid any possible misconduct and to make sure the system is followed accurately. Eventually, Mr. Naeem Ayubzada expressed his gratitude to Mr. Fayez on behalf of TEFA and acknowledged the commission for their constructive efforts.