Afghanistan announces new election date: September 28

Following the controversial parliamentary elections and the amendment of the election law, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Wednesday announced September 28 as the new date for the polls.

Based on the previous timeline, the elections were supposed to be held on July 20. Addressing a press conference, IEC Chairperson Hawa Alam Nuristani said the new amendments to the election law and some other issues are behind the decision to postpone the elections.

Nuristani said the elections will be held on 28 September if the stakeholders, especially the Afghan government and international community provide the budget the election commission. Nuristani said the commission was not able to hold the elections based on the previous timetable due to some problems in the electoral process.

She said the presidential elections, provincial council elections, district council elections and Ghazni parliamentary elections will be held together on September 28. Nuristani said Afghanistan’s October 20 parliamentary elections were “the worst elections in the last 15 years”.