Private printing industry earns huge sum from candidates

KABUL (Pajhwok): As the parliamentary elections come closer, the private printing industry is in full swing, earning a high amount of money by printing campaign materials for the hopefuls who overlook the state-owned printing press.

Private printing centers also complained they lacked raw material for printing posters and other campaign materials for candidates contesting the October 20 Wolesi Jirga or lower house polls.

The election campaign kicked off on September 31 and will continue until October 17, ending just three days before the Election Day.

Election contenders reaching in number 2,065 nationwide, including 804 in Kabul, have been busy wooing voters by holding rallies, meetings and decorating roads and streets with their posters.

Shifiqullah Ansar, owner of a private printing centre in Kabul, said there was more rush at printing centres this time compared to the campaign for the last election.

“We were prepared to get order from 10 to 15 candidates to publish their banners and posters but more than 30 candidates approached us. So we hired four new employees for designing,” he said.

He added the capacity of printing industry in Afghanistan had improved now compared to the previous years and every kind of order could be accepted.

He did not reveal what amount of income he charged but added sometimes the campaign period’s income exceeded their entire year’s income. “If we have elections once a year, no publication centre will collapse.”

Rahmatullah, a worker at Danish publication centre, said they printed up to 80,000 posters and banners in different size.

He said orders still existed with them, but the lack of raw materials had affected their activity.

Ahmadullah Noori, who owns a publication centre, said they printed over 50,000 posters and banners of candidates since the launch of the election campaign.

He said during previous elections most of posters and banners were published outside the country because complete machinery was not available in the country.

Owners of these private printing centres have earned a massive amount of money while no government publication facilities has received orders.

Mohammad Saber Sakha, deputy financial head of the sate owned Free Publication Centre, said no candidate had referred to them so far.

He said their publication centre was equipped with modern technology and advanced machinery and was capable of printing every order.

He said candidates did not refer to them because their printing price was higher compared to other printing facilities.

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