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KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will be seeking re-election in 2019, his office announced on Saturday as potential rivals start running for the premiership ahead of the polls.
Ghani, who was elected in a controversial poll in 2014, is expected to stand up to war-weary voters as a candidate to end the 17-year-old conflict.
This 69-year-old scholar, reputed to scream at subordinates and manage the union government, will try to capitalize on the renewed efforts of the United States to engage in peace talks with the Taliban, who do not seem to not bear fruit.
"I can confirm that President Ghani wants to be re-elected next year," Presidential Palace spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi said.
Ghani, who has chosen Abdul Rashid Dostum, chief ethnic leader of Uzbekistan, widely feared as a candidate for the 2014 presidential election, has not yet announced who he would choose this time. He is not sure who will contest it in the April 20 vote.
The director general, Abdullah Abdullah, the equivalent of the Afghan prime minister, and former national security adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar, who resigned in August, are among the potential candidates.
The former governor of Balkh province, Atta Mohammad Noor, whose refusal to resign has provoked a political crisis of several months for Mr. Ghani, has already expressed his interest in the post.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), in difficulty, was scheduled to publish the results of last month's Shambolic parliamentary poll the same day, but postponed Saturday the date to 23 November for all provinces except Kabul.
The results from Kabul province will be released on December 1, IEC spokesman Sayed Hafizullah Hashimi told reporters.
Dirty Presidency
Mr. Ghani, a member of the Pashtun ethnic group, will need more than the support of the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan to succeed at the polls and he has already begun to try to win rival ethnic groups.
The controversial return of Vice President Dostum in exile in July was interpreted as an attempt by the president to win the minority group vote.
Mr. Ghani's presidency has been tainted by growing militant violence, unprecedented civilian casualties, internal political conflict, growing ethnic divisions and endangered hopes among Afghans.
The results of a Gallup survey released last month revealed an unprecedented level of pessimism among the people of this war-torn country.
A former US-trained World Bank official, Mr. Ghani took office in 2014 when US-led NATO-led combat troops withdrew from the country, sparking a Taliban resurgence that also coincided with the emergence of militant group of the Islamic State in the region.
In February, under increasing pressure from the international community, which provides vital financial and military support to the government, Mr. Ghani made an offer of peace to the Taliban. This was followed in June by an unprecedented ceasefire between Afghan troops and Taliban fighters, which lasted three days and raised the hope that peace would be possible.
Taliban officials have met with US officials at least twice in Qatar in recent months, most recently on Oct. 12 with US special envoy for peace, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Khalilzad is also in talks with countries in the region, including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, to coordinate their efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
Posted in Dawn, November 4, 2018
