Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) has submitted a proposal of $150 million for holding the upcoming presidential elections.

Habib ul Rahman Nang, the Chief of IEC Secretariat said on Sunday that the proposal has been given to the government and the international community.

He added that a part of the budget will be invested for procuring the remaining biometric devices.

However, electoral observers and experts blame IEC officials for lack of competency to spend the budget as required.

“The budget must be provided to the IEC but the international community and the ministry of finance must strengthen their monitoring mechanisms to enhance transparency in the process,” said Habib Shinwari, member of a Kabul-based electoral monitoring organization.

“The budget will be prepared based on the operational plan but IEC has failed to prepare its operational plan yet and they have changed the election timeline many times; therefore, they cannot present the exact amount of the election budget,” said Daud Ali Najafi, a former IEC official.

Earlier, IEC said that it has allocated $12 million for the voter registration process while observers said that the process is unsuccessful because IEC has failed to conduct the public awareness campaigns.

The Afghan presidential election is scheduled to be held on September 28 this year.