The High Peace Council (HPC) on Wednesday said it was confident that big changes could happen regarding peace talks within the next few months.

The spokesman for the council, Sayed Ehsan Taheri, said interest in talks among Taliban at different levels has increased and that the institution hopes to kick start negotiations with the group this year.

A senior member of the Afghan parliament’s leadership said Wednesday that government is trying to engineer the upcoming parliamentary elections by making sure its cronies secure seats in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament).

This comes a day after the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said it had started assessing nomination papers of parliamentary election candidates.