Kabul: Afghanistan will hold its next presidential polls on April 20 next year, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced on Tuesday.
The IEC said these elections will be held six months after the October parliamentary and district council elections, Tolo News reported.
The announcement came after national unity government leaders called on the IEC a week ago to announce the date for the 2019 presidential election as “soon as possible”.
According to a statement issued by the President’s Office, President Ashraf Ghani met IEC members, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto and various ambassadors of countries supporting the poll process.
“At the meeting the leadership asked the IEC to reassure the people about the (voter) registration process and provide facilities for political parties, civil society organizations and international observers to monitor the election process,” the statement read.
“President Ghani made it clear at the meeting that any outside influence by anyone, including government employees, in the election process will be considered a crime and action will be taken,” it said.
—IANS