Presidential hopeful Ahmad Wali Massoud on Tuesday said that Afghanistan needs to take a strong stance in the peace process and that holding the presidential elections on time will help the country join the peace process from a strong, national, position.

This comes just three days after a marathon session of talks between US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar where the two sides reportedly agreed on some key issues that could see an end to 17 years of war in Afghanistan.

Massoud however criticized the incumbent and previous governments for their policies in Afghanistan and said they failed to come up with solid policies on tackling the problems and ongoing chaos in the country.

“When we desire sustainable peace, we should get involved in the process from a powerful position. Peace is the genuine right of the Afghan people. There is a need for a national process. Only a national government and national leader can take this national process forward. The tenure of this government will come to an end within a few months. Therefore, we need to move towards elections. We should address the issue of peace from a strong national position. So we should have both elections and the peace process,” Massoud said.

“The presidential political system has plunged the country into a crisis,” said Massoud – who has said if he wins the electoral race he will bring changes to the current centralized political system.

He said that the National Unity Government (NUG) under President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah has been very weak in terms of peace negotiations and that they do not have a clear position on peace.

“To resolve the current crisis, first you need to set aside the political and ethnic differences and create national consensus,” said Massoud.

“Bringing change in the system in Afghanistan is our top priority,” he said.

Out of the 18 presidential election candidates that are running for presidency in the July polls, four of them have entered the race promising to bring changes to the country’s political system.

The other 14 have said they will leave the system as it is although some said they will scrap the Chief Executive position in the next government.

The systems that they have promised includes establishing a prime minister post, changing the current presidential system to federal and parliamentary systems, and creating a third vice president position.

Those candidates who have pledged to bring changes to the system are Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former national security advisor Mohammad Haneef Atmar, head of Massoud Foundation Ahmad Wali Massoud and former MP Abdul Latif Pedram.

Massoud served as Afghan ambassador to the UK and has a master’s degree in diplomacy.