• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taliban boycott Afghanistan's presidential election

Iran Press TV

Sat Oct 26, 2013 5:20PM GMT

Taliban militants say they will boycott the Afghanistan's landmark 2014 presidential election unless US troops withdraw from their war-ravaged country, Press TV reports.

Senior Taliban leader Maulana Abdul Aziz made the announcement while on a visit to Quetta, just across the border in neighboring Pakistan.

'Neither we, nor any [other] Jihad forces will participate in any election to be held before the end of the occupation of Afghanistan by the US and its allies,' Aziz said, adding, 'I am here to convince the Afghan refugees residing in Quetta not to participate in elections."

Meanwhile, the fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued a fresh appeal to his supporters on Friday to turn public opinion against the next year elections.

Afghanistan's presidential election is scheduled to be held on April 5, 2014.

The remarks come as Independent election commission of Afghanistan (IEC) has declared at least ten candidates as eligible to run for the landmark election. President Hamid Karzai is not allowed to run for a third five-year term under Afghan law.

The Afghan presidential election comes as US-led combat troops are expected to withdraw by December 2014 and the Taliban seek a return to government. The upcoming vote is scheduled to be held months before the expected withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces from the war-ravaged country.

The election comes at a time when the country is grappling with growing wave of violence and militancy.

Karzai has repeatedly warned against the US meddling in Afghanistan's upcoming presidential election, stressing that the presence of foreigners in the country's election watchdog is against the country's sovereignty. Two of the five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan are non-Afghan.

'The presence of foreigners in the Electoral Complaints Commission is against the sovereignty of Afghanistan,' Karzai said in October 2012, adding that 'Foreign observers can still come to monitor the transparency or non-transparency of the election, but their interference in the election process is against Afghanistan's sovereignty.'

Some analysts are calling the landmark election the litmus test for democracy after 12 years of a US-led occupation.

FKO/JR/SS