KABUL: Afghanistan aims to hold parliamentary and local district elections in October, more than three years late, a senior election official said, although much work needs to happen quickly to meet that timeline in the war-ravaged country.
The elections are considered a dry run for the presidential vote to be held in 2019 and a test of whether Afghanistan’s Western-backed government can overcome past election problems of poor security and fraud.
President Ashraf Ghani and international donor countries have all said elections need to happen this year. Some Western diplomats doubt, however, that there is enough time to organize the vote in 2018.The main challenges ahead of the vote are registering Afghans, many of whom do not have identification documents, and setting up ballot stations in remote areas. Plans for voter security and preventing fraud are also critical.
