Rules violated on poll campaign’s first day

KAUBL (Pajhwok): Campaigners for some presidential candidates on Sunday, the day of election campaign launch, defied warnings from the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) against erecting billboards and gluing posters in prohibited areas.

The electioneering formally kicked off on Sunday and would continue for two months.

As the campaign began, candidates’ campaigners started pasting portraits and installing banners on private walls, gates and other places.

Candidates have promised they would strictly follow Independent Election Commission (IEC)’s rules governing the use of posters. However, many posters and billboards could be seen in areas prohibited by the electoral bodies.

Candidates in the previous elections had also violated election rules by moving to restricted places for displaying posters and photos.

A Pajhwok correspondent saw residents tearing down posters and banners of some candidates from walls of residential buildings.

Most of the posters which were brought down from walls and gates of private homes in the crowded Shahri Naw locality belonged to Hedayat Amin Arsala, Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, and Abdul Rahim Wardak, the reporter observed.

A resident of the area, Haji Habib, while removing posters of Wardak and Rassoul from his home walls, said such materials affected efforts at cleanliness of the city. He said it would require a lot of efforts to remove and throw away the materials outside the city after the elections.

He asked IEC officials to prevent campaigners from displaying election posters in private areas, calling it an unpleasant act.

The ECC has recently again warned candidates to act in line with the election commission’s rules.

ECC spokesman Nader Mohsini said if they received complaints against campaigners that they had violated the rules, serious action would be initiated against them.

Mohsini directed the IEC to once again warn candidates against violating commission rules.

The Kabul municipality has also requested candidates to paste posters in permitted areas only.

mds/ma

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