The Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Afghanistan is considering the likely postponement of presidential election for another three months.
A spokesman of the Independent Election Commission, Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, said the commission is currently working on some plans regarding the upcoming election.
According to Ibraimi, the presidential election, parliamentary election in Ghazni, and district council election would likely be held three months later from the date previously announced.
The election officials had earlier announced that the presidential election would likely be conducted on April 20, 2019.
In the meantime, Ibrahimi said IEC is also considering recommendations for the postponement of presidential election.
However, he added that no final decision has been made in this regard so far.
Pajhwok Afghan News reported on Sunday that a joint team of election commissions, comprised of secretaries, four commissioners from the two election bodies and four election experts, agreed at a meeting on Saturday to delay the presidential and three other elections for two months and 22 days to July 13 due to cold weather and impassable routes.
Citing a credible source in IEC, Pajhwok said that the schedule was prepared by election experts of the electoral bodies during Saturday meeting, which was also attended by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative.
According to the timetable, the presidential and three other elections are scheduled for July 13, 2019. Primary results of the presidential election would be announced on August 11 and final results on September 15.
This comes as the government in recent week repeatedly refuted the idea of possible delay in presidential election after reports emerged that US may ask Afghan government to postpone presidential election for peace talks with Taliban.
Haroon Chakhansori, a presidential spokesman, told a journalist on Saturday that the government is fully prepared to hold the presidential election on April 20 as announced by the Independent Election Commission.
Before him, the second vice president, Sarwar Danish, said at a gathering that there was no justification for any delay in presidential poll. The vice president said: “Election has no link with the peace process and its delay has no legal and political justification.”
He said the idea of interim government was an old theory, in contradiction with the country’s constitution and a crisis-generating step.
