KABUL - Ahead of next month’s second round run-off in the country’s Presidential elections, the Afghan body responsible for organizing the poll today asked civil society groups and media organizations for their cooperation in carrying out public awareness campaigns.

“Civil society organizations and the Afghan media played important role in raising public awareness ahead of the first round of elections – we ask them to continue their support in encouraging people to participate in the second round and shape the future of their country,” said the Vice-Chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Abdul Rehman Hotak, at a meeting with civil society and media organizations in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

He stated that the IEC will provide technical and logistical assistance to civil society organizations so that public awareness efforts can reach all parts of the country.

“Elections are a national process and it relates to the Afghan people,” said Mr. Hotak. “Afghan people proved with their enthusiasm and widespread participation in the first round of the elections that they support this national process.”

The Presidential elections are now in a run-off stage after none of the candidates in the 5 April poll achieved the 50 per cent plus one result needed to win in the first round. Two leading candidates from that round, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, will compete in the second round to be held on 14 June. In a recent news release, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) congratulated the Afghan people, candidates, and the country’s electoral and security institutions on the conduct of the first round of the election, describing it as a “democratic milestone.”

At today’s meeting, IEC officials said that “better preparations” have been made for conducting the second round of the contest to succeed President Hamid Karzai.

“For each candidate in the second round of elections, 25,000 observer cards have been printed so that their representatives can monitor the process alongside national and international observers,” said the head of IEC’s Secretariat, Ziaul Haq Amarkhil.

He also said that 4,000 new additional polling stations will be opened, along with the more than 20,000 polling stations that were opened for the first round, in order to ensure that people can exercise their right to vote.

IEC officials said they are hiring new staff to replace over 3,000 of their employees whose contracts were terminated recently for their alleged involvement in fraud and the violation of electoral rules during the first round of the Presidential elections.

“The cases of these staff members are under revision and, in case they are found guilty of committing fraud in the elections, they will be referred to the prosecutor’s office,” said Mr. Amarkhil.

He also asked security institutions to identify their staff members who were involved in committing fraud in the first round, suspend them and, if needed, refer them to the prosecutor’s office.

The United Nations has called for making next month’s Presidential run-off elections as transparent as possible, to candidates as well as to the public, so that the outcome will reflect the will of the people.

“I think the argument of having the second round is simply that the first round has not determined who is the legitimate leader,” said the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, in a media encounter in Kabul on Sunday.

“The second round gives an opportunity for a much more effective and complete democratic exercise to choose a leader that clearly has the support of the Afghan people,” the UNAMA official added.