Officials of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday said the complaints against candidates registered in its satellite offices in 18 provinces had been successfully transferred to the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) office in Kabul. Yet still complaints from other provinces remain unmoved.
The announcement came after ECC officials have repeatedly complained of setbacks to its complaint review process, with the IEC being for the most part the culprit implicated.
After the three-day delay in the announcement of the preliminary list of candidates started the ECC's hearing process off behind schedule on Saturday, the bumps in the road kept coming as it acknowledged that nearly half of the 474 registered complaints had still not come in from the provinces.
It wasn't until Monday, reportedly, that the complaints submitted in 18 provinces were brought to the ECC office in the capital in Kabul. While the ECC will begin reviewing them right away, it still awaits all those from other provinces that still haven't come in.
"We will do our best to transfer the remaining complaints to Kabul as soon as we can," assured IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor.
ECC officials confirmed the reception of the complaints, and reiterated that it had already completed the review of all complaints that were registered in Kabul.
Although specifics about the nature of complaints already reviewed were not provided of ECC representatives, reportedly, many of the objections involve claims against the literacy of certain Provincial Council candidates. Both Presidential and Provincial Council candidates are required to be fully literate.
ECC officials also noted on Tuesday that they had received all the documents of the candidates from the IEC, after having only received those of disqualified candidates as of the day before.
The IEC cut 16 out of 26 Presidential and nearly 400 Provincial Council contenders from its preliminary list of candidates last week. Objections were heard from many of those disqualified in the following days, accusing the IEC of methodological mistakes as well as political bias.
Although disqualified candidates are allowed to challenge the IEC's decisions through the ECC, officials have said they would prioritize complaints against candidates who made the preliminary list over challenges from eliminated ones.
Spokesman of the ECC Nader Mohseni said complaints were being investigated by the Commission as efficiently as possible.
But given the time crunch caused by the series of delays in the past week, and the substantial workload the ECC has on their plate, the scheduled date for the announcement of the final list of candidates – November 16 – has been called into question.