OVERVIEW

ESA provides technical and operational support for Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), including the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to increase the likelihood of credible and transparent elections in Afghanistan.

ESA assists the IEC to improve facilitation of the electoral process and achieve structural and election planning milestones. In addition, ESA assists the ECC in strengthening the Electoral Dispute Resolution process, including carrying out extensive public outreach programs to increase citizens’ awareness.

ESA’s objectives are to build the capacity of the Afghan electoral institutions to implement elections in line with the national electoral legal framework and Afghanistan's international commitments; to partially finance the elections as per the request of the Government of Afghanistan; and to support the EMBs in strengthening integrity of the electoral process by enhancing accountability of responsible actors and supporting the implementation of electoral fraud mitigation mechanism.

ACTIVITIES

• Technical support to the EMBs in strengthening the integrity of the electoral process by enhancing the accountability of responsible actors and supporting the implementation of the electoral fraud mitigation mechanism.
• Provide 35 advisors and support staff to assist EMBs improvements to their institutional functions and policies; operational and administrative processes; and institutional capacity development.
• Support to the ECC to develop a credible electoral dispute resolution case management system for timely adjudication of electoral complaints as described in the national electoral legal framework.
• Assist the IEC and ECC to effectively inform the Afghan public, political parties, coalitions, civil society organizations, and government stakeholders of the electoral process and to gain their commitment to participating in the next electoral cycle in accordance with the law.
• Procurement of all materials necessary to implement voter registration. The IEC produced a polling-center-specific voter list for the October 2018 Parliamentary elections.
• Procurement of all equipment necessary to implement the Wolesi Jirga election.
• Technical and advisory support to the IEC and ECC to plan for and support the conduct of presidential and provincial council elections in 2019.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Supported the IEC in conducting a nationwide polling center assessment and a balancing and allocation exercise of 7,355 polling centers, in order to create polling-center-based voter lists as required in the National Electoral Law.
• Assisted the IEC in development and approval of voter registration for the parliamentary (Wolesi Jirga) election. The publication of the final voter registration list resulted in 8,834,708 registered voters, including 3,070,296 (34.75%) females and 5,764,412 males (65.25%).
• Supported the IEC to conduct candidate nominations for the parliamentary election. Following candidate verification, 2,565 candidates were published by the IEC as the final candidate list.
• Supported the IEC and ECC in holding eight National Election Forums and seven Provincial Forums. These outreach activities built partnerships with a wide array of national and international stakeholders.
• Technical assistance and comparative analyses supported the Special Electoral Reform Commission in developing its final report and recommendations on voter registration, polling centers, EMB structure, elections dispute resolution, elections systems and women's participation.
• Supported Election Day operations across Afghanistan, where more than four million citizens cast ballots for Afghan members of parliament.