Mohammad Natiqi, the head of the political committee of the political parties on Monday said that political leaders held talks with former president Hamid Karzai after recent discussions between the parties, government and the election commission ended in a stalemate. 

According to Natiqi, the political leaders and Karzai held discussions on issues of national interest with a special focus on the elections and the peace process. 

He said that these consultations will continue and that the political parties will announce their stance against government once a political consensus is forged. 

The political parties have alleged that government and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) do not want the elections to be held in a free and credible manner.

“We to come to realize that the meetings are not beneficial and they (government and IEC) are not willing to accept our proposal, nor will they accept the biometric system … also they do not want transparency, because they are not committed to it; they say that you (political parties) can monitor this handwritten registration which we have done, should we not monitor the fraud? This cannot happen and it will not yield results,” said Natiqi.

This comes a day after the fifth round of meetings between the IEC, political parties and the government ended in a stalemate. 

Political parties met with government on Sunday over the upcoming elections, but the trilateral meeting ended in a stalemate. 

“The meeting ended in a stalemate after government’s proposal to introduce a biometric system for presidential elections next year, and not for parliamentary elections in October, was rejected. Political parties refused to accept this and said they would protest the move,” a source familiar with the talks told TOLOnews on Sunday. 

Representing government at the meeting was Second Vice President Sarwar Danish, who chaired meeting, representatives from Central Statistics & Tazkera departments, a presidential advisor and an advisor to the CEO. IEC representatives also attended. Political parties including Hizb-e-Islami, Jamiat, Hizb-e-Wahadat Islami, Mahaz-e-Milli & Afghan Millat, said the source. 

On Monday’s meeting, Natiqi said: “Former president and his supporters were there at his residence, delegations from the Grand Coalition including a delegation from the Council for the Protection and Stability of Afghanistan. Discussions were held on the issue of elections and peace process.” 

Meanwhile, IEC has expressed hope that these meetings continue.

“We hope that the meetings will continue, we have little time before elections; it is difficult to implement these recommendations at this time,” said IEC commissioner Sayed Hafiz Hashemi.

According to political parties, Karzai also announced his support for the plan tabled by the political parties to the IEC and government. 

“Discussions have not completed regarding the agendas; consultations are expected to continue until the end of the week, I hope that we reach a final conclusion by the end of the week,” said Massoud Tarishtwal, spokesman for the Council for the Protection and Stability of Afghanistan. 

The political parties have been calling for changes to be brought to the electoral system, the suspension of the voter registration process, rolling out a biometric system for voter registration and declaring each province a single constituency.