KABUL - The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomes the recent financial pledges by international donors which will cover the required budget for the country’s 2014 Presidential and Provincial Council elections.

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).

Afghan-led and Afghan-managed electoral processes are central to a stable and sustainable political transition. The pledges represent the collective commitment of the international community to Afghanistan and its support for credible and inclusive electoral processes.

The pledges were made on 3 September in Kabul at a meeting co-chaired by the IEC Chairperson, Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani and the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative, Nicholas Haysom.

Those in attendance included representatives of the thirteen 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.

At the meeting, donors took the opportunity to stress the importance of the timely and successful implementation of the IEC Operational Plan, which includes security planning, capacity-building, fraud mitigation and inclusive voter outreach.

UNAMA reiterates its call on all stakeholders to engage constructively in efforts to ensure that the elections are held according to the Afghan Constitution and the IEC’s timelines.