Afghanistan Postpones Next year’s Presidential Election due to Technical Problems

Afghanistan’s election commission says the presidential vote scheduled for April will be postponed for several months to allow time to fix technical problems that surfaced during October’s parliamentary elections.

Ariana News Agency- Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, said Wednesday that more time is needed to train staff on a biometric identification system designed to reduce fraud. He says additional verification of voter lists also requires more time.

Parliamentary elections were fraught with delays after the few staff trained on the biometric system did not show up at the polling booths and countless registered voters could not find their names on voter lists. Scores of challenges to the parliamentary election results have surfaced.

No new date for presidential polls has been set.