The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday officially started the registration process for presidential elections.
 
Abdul Latif Pedram is the first presidential candidate to file nomination papers alongside his vice president nominees, to run in the July 20 presidential elections.
 
Pedram meanwhile expressed skepticism about the capacity of the election management body to hold the elections. He called for systematic reforms to be put in place in the election commission.
 
Officials from the IEC said that incumbent President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah have also received presidential elections information packages. But the two officials, so far, have not registered officially to run for office.
 
Pedram has chosen Ehsanullah Haidari and Mohammad Sadiq Wardak as his first and second vice presidents respectively.
 
Speaking on the occasion, Pedram said, “We will fight to establish a federal system in Afghanistan, this my basic program, and later on establish better relations with regional countries, especially Pakistan, we do not have border issues with Pakistan, therefore, we should create the best relations with them.
 
“We cannot move towards elections with this leadership and with this commission. A little over two months have passed and still there are no final results for the parliamentary elections. There were three types of voting on the day of elections,” he added.
 
Mohammad Hakim Torsan, another potential candidate, said he too will register in the next few days.
 
“I can say with confidence that I will be the next president of Afghanistan and I will not allow anyone to play with the future of the people of Afghanistan through fraud, violation and pressure,” said Torsan.

“Up to 73 people so far have received the presidential elections information packages,” said IEC deputy spokesman Zabiullah Sadat.
 
Based on the electoral timeline previously announced by the IEC, the presidential candidates were due to file nomination papers from December 22 to January 2. But last week, the IEC postponed the elections for three months.

Afghanistan’s presidential elections were supposed to be held on April 20.
 
Although the IEC pledged the start of the registration process for presidential candidates on December 22, a number of potential election candidates on Wednesday said IEC officials had told them that the election management body was still preparing for it.
 
“Mistrust already exists on the election commission, there is still a confusing situation and the commission has not managed to clarify it,” said potential election candidate, Shaida Mohammad Abdali.
 
But, elections observers have constantly said that the IEC under its president leadership does not have the capacity to conduct the elections transparently.
 
“They (IEC officials) cannot move towards the presidential elections, they must be fired from their posts, their announcement to conduct the elections is dramatic,” said Marwah Amini, spokesman for Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan.
 
This comes after chairman of IEC, Abdul Badi Sayyad, on Sunday said the election management body had decided to hold the country’s presidential elections on July 20 this year.