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 14 others 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 presidentposition.
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.
Abdullah said if he wins the next election he will amend the Constitution and will change the current presidential system to a parliamentary system.
Atmar’s slogan is that if he wins, he will create a prime minister post and a third vice president position, which according to him will be a reform of the current presidential system.
Ahmad Wali Massoud’s election campaign slogan is also about changing the current system to a parliamentary system.
Pedram said his plan is to change the current system to a federal system.
“If we ignore the name of the current system and only consider the authorities, in fact we do not have a president in Afghanistan, but have a king instead. This is not something the people want and definitely the slogans of the candidates are affected by the people’s demands,” Jafar Mahdavi, a political affairs analyst said.
“Unfortunately, currently society is in a fragile state and also foreigners are interfering here, and we have lots of challenges. Thus, we need a centralized system that should be based on the Constitution’s order,” Hamidullah Farooqi, a university lecturer said.
President Ashraf Ghani, who is also a candidate, has not said anything about the political system but said Mohammad Yusuf Ghazanfar, a close aide would be a decision maker in his government. Thus, it is believed that Ghani will have a third vice president as well.
Mohammad Hakim Torsan, another presidential candidate, said he would continue with the current system.
“We need people to work for the country and people to implement the current system. I have seen no problem with this system,” said Torsan.
On January 3, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) officially started the registration process for presidential elections. The process ended on January 20.
The candidates who have entered the election race include former member of Afghanistan’s parliament Abdul Latif Pedram, incumbent President Ashraf Ghani, incumbent Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, former National Security Advisor Mohammad Haneef Atmar, former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, former minister of interior Noorul-haq-Ulomi, former Afghan ambassador to India Shaida Mohammad Abdali, Sayed Noorullah Jalili, Enayatullah Hafiz, leader of Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ahmad Wali Massoud, Noor Rahman Laiwal and former NDS chief Rahmatullah Nabil, Mohammad Hakim Torsan and ex-director general of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Faramarz Tamanna.
The election commission on Monday said they have started scrutinizing the candidates’ nomination papers to exclude ineligible candidates from the race.