KABUL, 19 May 2005 — A former Taleban minister has registered to run in Afghanistan’s Sept. 18 parliamentary election, an election commission official said yesterday. Former Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil was detained by US forces after the ouster of the Taleban government in 2001 and released two years later. He has been living in Afghanistan since then.
Muttawakil registered to be a candidate in the parliamentary election in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday. Asked by reporters if he expected Taleban supporters to vote for him, Muttawakil said people were free to vote for who they wanted.
Muttawakil, who was always seen by political analysts as a Taleban moderate, is one of several former group officials who have been involved in reconciliation talks with the US-backed government this year. Nearly 2,000 people have registered to run in the election for the 249-seat lower house of Parliament, known as the Wolesi Jirga. Candidate registration in most of the country ends next week, the election commission official said.
The joint UN-Afghanistan electoral commission yesterday extended by three days the cut off date for receiving nominations from candidates for the polls, officials said. However, a six-day extension has been given to candidates to submit their nomination papers in eastern Nangarhar province by the commission also referred to as the Joint Electoral Management Body, they said. Earlier, the commission had set a May 19 deadline for nominations.
“JEMB has extended the candidate nomination period by three days from Saturday May 21 to Monday May 23 inclusive,” JEMB chairman Bismillah Bismil told reporters. “The three-day extension applies to all provinces except Nangarhar, where candidate nomination will be extended by a full six days, from Saturday May 21 to Thursday May 26,” he said.
In another development, the government said that it was in contact with an abducted Italian aid worker, who was in good health, and her kidnappers and was optimistic she would be released unharmed. “We have spoken with Clementina Cantoni,” Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP. “Her health condition and safety is ensured.” He added that the government was “in constant contact” with the people claiming to be the kidnappers. “We are very optimistic that Ms. Clementina will be peacefully released,” he said. “We are sparing no efforts to get her peaceful release, but there will be no concession to kidnappers.”
Five Afghans, three of them working on an opium crop substitution project, were killed yesterday in a Taleban ambush, a provincial official said. The five were traveling in a vehicle in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan, when gunmen attacked, said provincial official, Muhayuddin Khan. “This was carried out by Taleban insurgents,” Khan said. Troops have been sent out to search for the rebels, he said.
