Presidential elections may be delayed for 3 months

KABUL (Pajhwok): The presidential and other three elections have been postponed for three months, according to a well-placed source which said the decision was not yet finalized.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC), however, often stressed over the conduct of presidential elections on April 20, 2019.

According to a new schedule obtained by Pajhwok Afghan News the presidential, Ghazni Wolesi Jirga, provincial council and district council elections will be conducted on July 13 of 2019.

Based on this schedule, the registration process of presidential election candidates would begin on January 1, 2019 and continue until January 28 and the election campaigns of the presidential candidates would begin on May 12 and continue until July 11.

The presidential election and three other elections are scheduled for July 13, 2019 according to the new calendar. Primary results of the presidential election would announce on August 11 and final results on September 15.

A credible source who wished to go unnamed told Pajhwok Afghan News that a joint team of the election commissions, comprised of secretaries, four commissioners from the two election bodies and four election experts during a meeting on Saturday agreed that the presidential and three other elections delayed for two months and 22 days to July 13 due to bad climate situation and impassable routes.

The source said that the IEC was currently busy on separating genuine votes from fraudulent ones of the October 20 and 21 Wolesi Jirga elections and that was the reason the presidential polls delayed.

Recounting and reviewing of Wolesi Jirga votes and bad weather condition and impassable routes of a number of provinces of the country caused latency in arrival of sensitive election materials to the central office of IEC which was another reason of delay in the presidential election, the source said.

The source added that the schedule was prepared by election experts of the election commissions during Saturday meeting which was also attended by the UNDP representative.

Meanwhile, a number of prominent figures including President Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah, Atta Mohammad Noor, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Mohammad Omar Daudzai, Ahmad Wali Massoud, Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Shaida Ahmad Abdali and some others who did not want to be named are busy for forming their electoral ticket.

However, none of these figures have so far announced their official position about the election.

Based on some recent rumors the presidential elections probably delay for a few months due to peace negotiations with the Taliban, but no any officials sources had confirmed the issue.

Some reports say that there was also a probability the election schedule was delayed following recent negotiations with the Taliban and the US’s Special Representative for Reconciliation in Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad’s recent meetings with the representatives of the Taliban that shaded the election issue.

The US’s Special Representative for Reconciliation in Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad for a second time last week met with the Taliban representatives in Qatar.

After his meeting, he returned to Kabul and told a conference there that he was hopeful the Afghan government and the Taliban would reach a peace agreement in the next few months.

However, the IEC chief, Abdul Baday Sayyad, a week ago said that the presidential election would hold on its schedule.

“Political decisions are irrelevant to us and it relates on the government and the Taliban, their decisions would not affect the elections,” he had said.

Sayyad had said that no any decision was taken for the delay of elections and the commission had earlier announced the polls would conduct on April 20.

But some reports earlier said that the IEC was not capable of holding the elections on its schedule and the polls probably delay.

An IEC official, who wished to be anonymous in the report, said that the presidential election schedule would possibly change.

The source said that discussions about the presidential election were still underway and the July 13 was not a final schedule.

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