Afghan poll moved to July amid peace effort

KABUL: Afghanistan’s presidential election will be postponed until July 20, an official said on Sunday, as Us-led efforts to end the 17-year war with the Taliban gather steam.

The three-month delay, announced by the Independent Election Commission , comes after weeks of speculation that the vote would be put off to create more space for peace talks with Afghanistan’s largest militant group.

The presidential ballot was originally scheduled for April 20, which many observers had considered unrealistic given the IEC was still finalising results of October’s shambolic and bloody parliamentary elections.

Provincial and district council elections, as well as a previously postponed parliamentary vote in Ghazni province, will be held on the same day, IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad told reporters.

A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, who plans to seek re-election, welcomed the new timeline. Official reasons for the delay included the cold weather across much of Afghanistan in April, the expense of holding four separate elections and the complication of deploying security forces to protect different ballots.

Organisers also needed more time to recruit staff, train them in the use of biometric verification devices.

TALIBAN REJECT GOVT’S OFFER OF PEACE TALKS

The Taliban have rejected Kabul’s offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the militants, fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, will meet US officials to further peace efforts, a Taliban leader said on Sunday.

“We will meet the US officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi,” a member of the Taliban’s decision-making Leadership Council told Reuters. “However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan government.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the leaders of the group would not talk to the Afghan government.

PAK FOREIGN MINISTER IN QATAR FOR TALKS

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah al-thani, deputy PM and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed al-thani and other officials during a trip to Doha on Sunday.

Qureshi, who last week wrapped up a tour of Kabul, Tehran, Beijing and Moscow in connection with the Afghan peace process, said Pakistan decided on a “regional outreach” and on taking important allies into confidence, as well as exchanging views about the Afghan issue.