KABUL - Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday afternoon announced it has set the date for presidential elections for next year.
The IEC said these elections will be held on April 20, six months after the October parliamentary and district council elections.
No further details were immediately available.
This comes after National Unity Government (NUG) leaders called on the IEC a week ago to announce the date for the 2019 presidential election as “soon as possible”.
According to a statement issued by the President’s Office at the time, President Ashraf Ghani met with IEC members, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Tadamichi Yamamoto, and various ambassadors of countries supporting the election process.
“At the meeting the leadership of the NUG asked the IEC to reassure the people about the (voter) registration process and provide facilities for political parties, civil society organizations and international observers to monitor the election process,”the statement read.
“President Ghani made it clear at the meeting that any outside influence, by anyone, including government employees, in the election process will be considered a crime and action will take,” read the statement.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah also said at last week’s Council of Ministers meeting that the IEC has been asked to announce the date for next year’s polls. He said “there should be no uncertainty over the will of the NUG for holding of elections.” (Tolo news)