Long-delayed Afghan parliamentary and district council elections should be possible this year despite major security and logistical challenges, Afghan election authorities said yesterday as they confirmed Oct. 20 as the date of the vote.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, his credibility on the line with both voters and increasingly impatient international partners, has vowed to hold the elections before presidential elections next year.
However, the general elections, now three years late, have been repeatedly postponed and have been again pushed by from a July date announced last year as political disputes and wrangling over voter registration have blocked progress.
“Today the Independent Election Commission officially announces to the people of Afghanistan that the election will be held on [Oct. 20],” Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairman Gula Jan Abdul Badi Sayad told a news conference.
International partners, desperate for signs of progress 17 years after the ousting of the Taliban, have exerted pressure on the Kabul government and political groups to ensure the success of the elections.
The vote, seen as a dry run before the even more important presidential election next year, has faced repeated delays and questions over the commitment of the Afghan political class to its success.
An ambitious biometric registration system originally envisaged as a means of avoiding the massive voter fraud that marred previous ballots was abandoned last year.
However, a major push to register voters, many of whom have no national identity papers, will need to succeed for the vote to be broad-based enough to be accepted as legitimate.
Voters must be issued with identity papers under a strict timetable and registered in the voting centers where they will cast their ballot, a move aimed at reducing the scope for multiple voting.
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan head Tadamichi Yamamoto said the announcement of a firm election date would allow authorities to move from planning to implementation.
“The participation of all Afghans in the electoral process, not merely the elections themselves, is critical,” he said in a statement.
The IEC said it was confident the vote could go ahead this year despite the difficulties in areas controlled by the Taliban.
“Afghan security forces have assured us they will carry out operations in insecure areas not in government control and to ensure security for people in the voter registration and voting stages of the election,” Sayad said.
In other developments, four hunger strikers taking part in a rare sit-in peace protest in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, were been taken to hospital for treatment on Friday night, officials and protesters said on Saturday.
The week-long demonstration, which has involved men, women and children, began the day after a car bomb attack rocked the city on March 23, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more.
Some of the protesters began a hunger strike on Thursday after their demands for a ceasefire between Afghan security forces and the Taliban were not met.
While the sit-in continues, organizers said they had called off the hunger strike on Saturday after the intervention of religious leaders.
Additional reporting by AFP
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