TALUQAN (PAN): Independent Election Commission (IEC) chief in northern Takhar province has said up to 40 staffers of the commission in the province were fired for committing minor violations of the electoral law.

Abdul Qudos Payanji told a press conference on Tuesday the terminated staff members did not fulfill their official obligations and had committed some violations or were not competent for the job.

To a question, Payanji said: "If the sacked officials had committed violation deliberately then they will have to face the legal consequences."

IEC had said hundreds of its staff members were fired from their jobs due to their negligence towards their duties.

Payanji said four polling centers opened in the first round of the elections on August 20 had been closed, because the turnout in these centres was very low.

He said the local security officials had assured security for the runoff and the provincial IEC has no concern about the security.

Takhar governor Abdul Latif Ebrahimi also briefed reporters on the election process, saying the runoff will go in a peaceful environment in a transparent way.

He added: "Even though no change is made in number of the security forces as this time there are only two candidates and the provincial councils elections are not there, so it will be easy to maintain better security with support of people."

The presidential election runoff is due on November 7 between Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah

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