KABUL (UNAMA) on Sunday welcomed recent financial pledges by international donors to cover the required budget for the country’s 2014 presidential and provincial council elections.
The pledges were made on September 3 in Kabul at a meeting co-chaired by IEC Chairperson Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani and UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom.
Those in attendance were representatives of the 13 funding partners of the UN Development Program’s (UNDP) Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow II (ELECT II) project, the primary mechanism for international technical assistance for the country’s electoral processes.
The ELECT II funding partners are Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
“These financial contributions are timely and another key step in ensuring the continuity of electoral preparations under the leadership of the Independent Election Commission (IEC),” the UN mission said in a statement.
UNAMA said Afghan-led and Afghan-managed electoral processes were central to a stable and sustainable political transition.
It said the pledges represented the collective commitment of the international community to Afghanistan and its support for credible and inclusive electoral processes.
At the Kabul meeting, donors took the opportunity to stress the importance of the timely and successful implementation of the IEC Operational Plan.
The plan includes security planning, capacity-building, fraud mitigation and inclusive voter outreach.
UNAMA reiterated its call on all stakeholders to engage constructively in efforts to ensure that the elections were held according to the Afghan Constitution and the IEC’s timelines.
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