Political parties announced that discussions are ongoing within three big circles, between political parties and movements, and with President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai on introducing candidates for presidential elections.
The parties said the final decision will be announced next week.
The parties also said that they will continue their efforts to nominate strong candidates for the elections in order to pull the country out of its current crisis.
The discussions are ongoing under the Council for Protection and Stability in Afghanistan (CPSA), the Grand National Assembly, and Hizb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
According to the parties, Ghani, Abdullah, former national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Mohammad Umer Daudzai, a member of the CPSA leadership, and former NDS chief Rahmatullah Nabil are preparing to run for president. The parties said they are discussing the issue of whether they will support one of these possible candidates or whether they will introduce another person as their candidate.
“They are in talks with former president Hamid Karzai as well. Some circles are in talks with the incumbent president (Ghani) as well as with the chief executive (Abdullah) and if these discussions are effective, they will show that democracy is improving gradually,” Daudzai said.
The political parties and movements stressed the need for a change in the system and for holding a transparent presidential election.
“The Hizb-e-Islami of Afghanistan as well as other parties are preparing for their election teams and we prefer that all effective parties should gather under one election team and should have one candidate. One or two election teams will be formed,” said Humayun Jarir, member of the leadership council of Hizb-e-Islami led by Hekmatyar.
One member of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, led by the First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum – which supported Ghani’s ticket in 2014 elections – said the party has not decided on which sector to support.
“The leadership of Junbish (the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan) is yet to make a decision on whether to be with Mr. Ashraf Ghani in the current government or support a team outside government,” said Abdullah Qarluq, member of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan.
The parties reiterated that the Independent Election Commission has failed to manage elections, saying that the country will face an even bigger crisis if presidential elections are managed like the parliamentary polls.
The political parties said in a statement on Thursday on presidential and parliamentary elections that:
• The people’s turnout in elections despite threats was appreciated. Political parties consider maintaining people’s real votes as its political and humanitarian responsibility and leaves no stone unturned in this regard.
• In order to safeguard people’s votes, political parties accept the votes which have been cast through the biometric system otherwise it will consider using required tools after consultation with the people. We ask the election commissions to fulfill their legal responsibilities in this regard.
• Political parties will not accept any election process which does not involve political parties’ observers – including vote counting, complaints assessment, quarantine of ballot boxes, recounting of votes in ballot boxes.
• Political parties once again insist on change in the incumbent system and ask government and the Independent Election Commission to provide the ground for an MDR system in provincial and district council elections.
• The current voters list does not have any validity. Political parties insist on re-registration of voters for presidential elections based on the biometric system while registering all fingerprints of a voter.
• Considering the fact that the presidential elections’ date is close, the Independent Election Commission should announce the election timeline as soon as possible and provide the ground for transparency and justice in the process as it announced earlier.