As president-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai prepares for Monday’s inauguration, many still criticize the 2014 presidential election process that faced “industrial-scale” fraud bringing into question the works of the election commissions.

On Saturday, former Independent Election Commission (IEC) Chairman Fazl Ahmad Manawi asserted that “if the IEC intentionally brought the election process to a crisis, it is a betrayal to the nation.” He stressed that investigations must be implemented to decipher the faces behind the crisis, claiming that a number of election commission personnel were involved, in what he calls, the “presidential election disaster.” 

“This issue must be clarified through a comprehensive investigation,” he asserted. “Was the political disaster in the hands of the IEC chairman and members or the executive committee? I believe that specific key figures in the commission directed the election in the direction they wanted it to head. If the IEC did this intentionally, then this is, in fact, a betrayal to the nation.”

Chairman of the Fair and Free Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), Nadir Naderi, said that if this issue is not solved the people will lose what little faith they have left in the election organizations.

“If these questions are not answered and the picture is not clear, the people will no longer trust the election organizations,” Naderi stressed. “Those who were behind the cause of the crisis need to be held accountable.”

The electoral tensions led the nation to seek foreign assistance in acquiring a solution to what was a prolonged presidential election threatening the country’s economy and security.

The nation now waits for the new administration—the national unity government—to officially kick into gear on Monday.