KABUL, 29 March 2004 — Afghanistan’s presidential and parliamentary elections, originally planned for June, will be in September, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday, as fresh attacks underlined the security worries behind the delay.
Announcing the agreement on September elections on the eve of a trip to Berlin for an aid donors’ conference, Karzai said security for the election, the first since the overthrow of the Taleban, would be a key issue at the meeting.
As he spoke, news was reaching Kabul from a remote central province of a Taleban raid that killed at least two soldiers, while blasts in a southeastern town killed a suicide bomber and wounded six people.
The decision on September poll came after the United Nations said both elections could not be held in June, as outlined in an international agreement that brought Karzai to power in late 2001.
Instead, the United Nations and Afghan election authorities had recommended both elections be held in September.
“They said that they can hold the presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously, which was the wish of all of us,” Karzai told reporters. The timing of the election is important as analysts believe US President George W. Bush is looking for a foreign policy success ahead of his own re-election bid in November.
