[ad_1]
An election candidate was killed Tuesday in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said a few days before the parliamentary vote that activists have promised to disrupt.
Eleven other people were injured when the attacker blew himself up in Saleh Mohammad Asikzai's campaign office in Lashkar Gah (south), told AFP the spokesman of the governor of Helmand Province, Omar Zhwak.
Asikzai, a young candidate for the first time, was campaigning on a platform for "positive change".
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Helmand has long been a Taliban stronghold, which was overthrown during an invasion by the United States in 2001.
President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack and said that Afghans who believe in democracy will not allow "terrorists" to stop the elections.
It is unclear how many people were in the room at the time of the explosion, a day after the Taliban warned the candidates to withdraw from the "bogus elections" scheduled for October 20.
Describing the polls as a "malicious US conspiracy" and urging voters to boycott them, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the activists would not punch to disrupt the polls.
This was the second suicide bombing of a parliamentary candidate since the start of the campaign on September 28th.
An attack on a rally in the eastern province of Nangarhar on October 2 killed 13 people and wounded more than 40. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, whose candidate survived.
The violence was supposed to intensify before the poll, which was contested by more than 2,500 candidates.
Tuesday's attack brings to at least six the number of assassinated candidates during targeted assassinations.
Hundreds of civilians have also been killed or injured in polling station violence in recent months.
The preparations for the poll, which is a test for next year's presidential vote, have been in turmoil for months and there has been some discussion about whether the vote should be held or not.
Bureaucratic inefficiency, allegations of industrial fraud and a commitment to biometric verification of voters after eleven hours of delay may derail the process, which is three years behind schedule.
Some 54,000 members of the besieged Afghan security forces will protect more than 5,000 polling stations on polling day.
But they wonder how they will handle the situation as the Taliban and the IS intensify their attacks across the country.
In the context of other violence, "hundreds" of Taliban fighters stormed a military post in Jowzjan province in the north of the country on Monday, the chief told AFP. Provincial Police Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani.
At least 12 soldiers and 30 Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, he said.
