{"id":14361,"date":"2012-10-31T00:10:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T00:10:37","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-10-31T00:10:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T00:10:13","slug":"Taliban-can-run-for-Afghan-president--what-","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14361","title":{"rendered":"Taliban can run for Afghan president – what?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Taliban and other insurgent leaders could stand as candidates in Afghanistan’s next presidential election, to be held in April 2014<\/strong>, the country’s top poll official said.<\/p>\n

President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term as leader of the war-torn nation, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and no clear candidate to succeed him has yet emerged.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vote, scheduled for April 5, 2014, is seen as crucial to Afghan stability after the withdrawal of NATO troops and Fazil Ahmad Manawi<\/strong>, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) insisted his body would act impartially.<\/p>\n

“We are even prepared to pave the ground for the armed opposition, be it the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami, to participate in the election, either as voters or candidates,” Manawi told a news conference.<\/p>\n

“There will be no discrimination,”<\/strong> the IEC chief added, defending the body in response to a question about its impartiality.<\/p>\n

Um Ok! ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hezb-i-Islami is the faction of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar which wages an insurgency along with the Taliban against Karzai’s Western-backed government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the IEC timetable, initial results of the election will be announced on April 24 <\/strong>and final results on May 14, with May 28 set aside for any potential run-off vote.<\/p>\n

The 2009 poll, in which Karzai was reelected over former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, was marred by widespread allegations of fraud, and the credibility of the 2014 vote<\/strong> is seen as key to avoiding an escalation in violence after the NATO withdrawal.<\/p>\n

The International Crisis Group think-tank warned this month that the Kabul government could fall apart after NATO troops pull out<\/strong>, particularly if the presidential elections are plagued by fraud.<\/p>\n

The Taliban, whose hardline Islamist regime was overthrown in 2001 by a US-led invasion for harboring Osama bin Laden, did not take part in the 2009 election<\/strong>, instead attacking polling stations.<\/p>\n

Under the Afghan system, voters elect the president as an individual rather than as a representative of a party<\/strong>, and candidates must submit their nominations by October 6, 2013.<\/p>\n

The IEC will then rule on their admissibility and publish a final list of candidates on November 16.<\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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