The Taliban have dissolved the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of Afghanistan, created under the previous regime and responsible for organizing the elections, a spokesperson for the Islamic regime told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, according to whom they “don’t need” it.
In addition to the IEC, the Taliban this week also ordered the dissolution of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and two ministries, one for peace and one for parliamentary affairs.
“Right now, we don’t need these two ministries and these commissions to exist and operate. If the need arises, the Islamic Emirate (the name given by the Taliban to their regime) could restore them, ”Bilal Karim, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban, told AFP.
The IEC was created in 2006, a few years after the fall of the previous Taliban regime (1996-2001). Its role was to organize and supervise the elections. As such, the IEC and its employees had been regularly targeted by attacks carried out by the Taliban.
“If this organization does not exist, I am 100% sure that Afghanistan’s problems will never be solved because there will be no elections,” Aurangzeb, who headed the organization, told AFP. IEC until the fall of the previous regime. He denounced a decision “taken in haste”.
Another senior official of the previous regime, Halim Fidai, said the decision showed that “the Taliban have not changed and that they do not believe in democracy”.
“They take power by bullets and not by the ballot box,” he added.
The Taliban seized power on August 15, overthrowing the previous government backed by the United States and its allies as foreign troops completed their hasty withdrawal from the country after two decades of presence.
Shortly after taking power, the Taliban had already replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with the dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.