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The Taliban government rejects the panel that oversaw the Western-backed administration in the previous administration.
The Taliban have disbanded Afghanistan’s election commission, a panel that oversaw polls in the previous administration backed by the Western government, a government spokesman said.
“There is no need for these committees to exist and function,” spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Saturday, referring to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Claims Commission.
“If we ever feel the need, the Islamic Emirate will revive these committees.”
Taliban brought to power in August, while a Western-backed government imploded in the final stages of a chaotic U.S. military withdrawal.
Founded in 2006, the IEC mandated the administration and oversight of all types of elections, including presidential elections, according to the commission’s website.
“This decision has been taken in a hurry … and the dissolution of the commission would have serious consequences,” Aurangzeb, who until the fall of the previous regime, was the chairman of the board, told the AFP news agency.
“If this structure does not exist, I am 100 percent sure that the problems in Afghanistan will never be resolved because there will never be an election,” said Aurangzeb, who has a unique name like many in Afghanistan.
Halim Fidai, a senior politician in the previous regime, said the decision to dissolve the election commission shows that the Taliban “do not believe in democracy.”
“They are against all democratic institutions. They gain power through bullets and not through votes, ”said Fidai, who has been governor of four provinces for the past 20 years.
Before the Taliban took over, armed groups killed several election commission officials.
Karimi said authorities also disbanded two government departments this week: the Ministry of Peace and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
The Taliban have already closed the former administration’s women’s affairs ministry and replaced it with the ministry of virtue promotion and vice prevention.
The ministry rose to prominence when the Taliban came to power in the 1990s because of its strict adherence to religious doctrine.
The Taliban government is urging the international community to recover billions of dollars discontinued aid and they have promised a more moderate rule this time.
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