Afghan presidential elections likely to be delayed

KABUL: Afghanistan´s embattled election organisers are considering delaying April´s presidential ballot by three months, officials said on Monday, as they struggle to tally votes cast in the recent legislative poll and resolve thousands of complaints.

The remarks come as the United States spearheads international efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks to end the 17-year war that some had feared could be derailed by the April 20 presidential vote, which is expected to fiercely contested.

The ballot could be pushed back to July 13, spokesmen for the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) told reporters. "There are legal and technical issues that should be addressed properly (if the vote is to be delayed),” ECC spokesman Ali Reza Rohani said. “We have to see if the proposed new date of July 13 is practical and whether we have to hold four elections at once.”

Presidential, provincial council and district council elections are scheduled to take place across the country in 2019. A parliamentary ballot, which was held in 33 out of Afghanistan´s 34 provinces last month, also needs to be carried out in Ghazni where voting was delayed following protests. The Afghan constitution requires the presidential election take place no later than April 22.