Protesters lock down parliament in Afghanistan

Candidates for the Afghan parliament in capital Kabul on Saturday locked down the house in protest against prolonged delay in announcement of final results for the polls held in October last year.

Scores of angry Wolesi Jirga (lower house of the parliament) candidates and their charged supporters staged a demonstration in front of the parliament building on what was supposed to be the maiden session of the newly elected legislature.

Following the parliamentary elections marred by allegations of irregularities, rigging and technical glitches, final results for almost all constituencies have been announced except for the Kabul province that has significant 33 seats in the Wolesi Jirga of 249.

Last month, while inaugurating the newly-elected parliament, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani stressed the lawmakers should robustly perform its three-tier task of monitoring the activities of the government, legislation and representation of the public.

In its special report titled “2018 Elections Violence”, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) noted last year the Taliban launched deliberate campaign of violence and intimidation to disrupt elections.

The report verified a total of 435 civilian casualties (56 deaths and 379 injured) during the process.

According to the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC), at least 8.8 million people had obtained voter cards to cast votes for 2,500 candidates who were running for the lower house of the parliament.

IEC is set to announce results for Kabul in the coming weeks.