Electoral Complaints Commission

According to the law the ECC is composed of two national Commissioners and three international Commissioners. One Commissioner is appointed by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, one Commissioner is appointed by the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and the three internationals are appointed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General. The 2009 ECC is comprised of national Commissioners, Ahmad Fahim Hakim and Mawlawi Mohammad Mustafa Barakzai. The international Commissioners are Grant Kippen, Maarten Halff and Scott Worden.

· Grant Kippen, Chairman

Grant Kippen has been involved in electoral politics and democracy strengthening activities over the last 30 years. In Canada, Mr. Kippen has worked within the Prime Minister’s Office, as an Advisor to a federal Cabinet Minister, as a Special Assistant to a Member of Parliament, as well as the Director of Organization for a national political party. He has published a number of articles on such issues as e democracy, electoral financing within post-conflict countries, the impact of information technology on electoral campaigns as well as on elections and democracy in Afghanistan.

Internationally, Grant Kippen has worked in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Jordan (in support of the 2005 Iraq elections), Moldova, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Ukraine. During this time he has been employed by the United Nations, IFES, the National Democratic Institute, Elections Canada and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. He was the Country Director in Afghanistan for the National Democratic Institute in 2003 – 2004, and during the 2005 Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council elections was the Chairman of the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). Grant was the IFES Complaints Advisor to the Election Commission in Timor Leste in 2007, and was the IFES Electoral Complaints Advisor to the Election Commission of Pakistan in 2007 – 2008. During the fall of 2008 he was the IFES Electoral Complaints Advisor to the Central Election Commission of Moldova as it prepared for the April 2009 elections.

Appointed to the ECC by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, he was elected as its chairman by the consensus of its members.

Mr. Kippen has a B.A. from The University of Western Ontario and an M.B.A. from the University of Ottawa. He is also a Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

· . Mawlawi Mohammad Mustafa Barakzai, Commissioner

Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, born in Farah province, and appointed to the Electoral Complaints Commission by the Supreme Court, is a member of Afghanistan’s Scholars Leading Council. After his education at the Ashrafia Madrasa, Lahore, and the Daagi School of Islamic Science, Zala-e-Mardan, Maulavi Barakzai joined the Dioband School of Islamic science in India, focusing on Haddith, Quran interpretation and Islamic jurisprudence. He received a degree equivalent to a master’s in Islamic Sciences, Adjudication and Islamic Philosophy. Maulavi Barakzai taught different Islamic subjects for 15 years in the center and rural areas of Farah province, and has served as preacher and speaker in his home town.

Governor of Farah in 1987, Maulavi Barakzai has worked in a broad range of managerial functions in the civil service, including in the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, and the Attorney General’s Office. In 2002, Maulavi Barakzai joined the Supreme Court of Afghanistan in 2002 as head of its Islamic Verdict and Ekhtesab (Accountability) Department. Most recently, he served as head of the Supreme Court’s Documentation Department.

His previous involvement in elections included serving as the head of the Media Complaint Commission in 2005. He was also the head of TV Cables Network Commission, and a member of the National Radio-Television Broadcasting Commission.

He speaks Pashtu, Dari, Arabic, Urdu and Balochi, and has traveled widely in Europe and Asia.

·

. Mohammad Fahim Hakim, Commissioner

Mr. Fahim Hakim, who was appointed to the ECC by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, is a qualified social and development worker with over 18 years of experience working as an activist and mobilizer for peace building and human rights activities. He worked with the UNCHS (Habitat) Afghanistan programme for seven years, and actively supervised relief and rehabilitation activities in war-torn and divided societies since 1990. He was an associate professor at Kabul University. He worked as director of the Afghan network “Co-operation for Peace and Unity”, initiating conflict transformation and peace-building initiatives at the grass roots level before joining the Commission. As an active member of the Afghan civil society he attended the Bonn Conference.

Mr. Hakim is a founding member of Afghan Civil Society Forum and other civil society organizations. He was actively involved in monitoring of the Emergency Loya Jirga, as well as Constitutional Loya Jirga. He has been closely working with Ministry of Education in developing a new teaching curriculum to incorporate human rights messages.

Hakim holds a B.S. in architecture from Faculty of Engineering, Kabul University and an M.A. in postwar recovery from York University, York, UK.

In 2006, he was a member of a UNHCHR delegation to enhance capacity building and consultation on transitional justice and national consultation in Burundi. He was also a research fellow with the United States Institute of Peace in 2008.

He holds an MA on Post-war Recovery from the University of York, UK. Prior to taking up his function as ECC Commissioner, he served as deputy chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

· Maarten Halff, Commissioner

Maarten Halff, appointed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, has served as United Nations adviser to election commissions in Afghanistan, Nepal, Liberia, and Iraq, where he advised on the development of election laws, electoral systems and complaint mechanisms.

In Afghanistan, he served among other functions as a member of the Election Complaints Commission in 2005, and as a member of the first Joint Electoral Management Body in 2003/2004. As legal adviser of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in 2003, he assisted the transitional government in developing legislation on political rights.

Maarten Halff joined the United Nations in 1996, after obtaining a master’s degree in international law at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. In addition to his electoral advisory work, he has served in a number of legal and management-related functions in the UN.