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Tag: Ashraf Ghani.

  • Afghan presidential election to hold April 2019

    Afghanistan will hold presidential election on April 20, 2019, six months after parliamentary and provincial council polls, the Country’s Electoral Body announced on Wednesday.

    During a televised news conference, Independent Election Commission (IEC) spokesman and commissioner Hafeezullah Hashemi said security and funding as well as the short time frame between elections would present the biggest challenges to the polls.

    Almost 14 per cent, or 56 of more than 400 districts, are fully controlled by the Taliban while 30 per cent are contested, according to figures by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published on Tuesday.

    Long-delayed parliamentary and provincial council elections in the war-torn country are scheduled for Oct. 20.

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    Parliamentary elections should have been held in 2015.

    However, they were postponed in the aftermath of the badly flawed presidential election of 2014, rising security threats and unresolved disputes about election reforms.

    The current Afghan administration under President Ashraf Ghani, who may decide to run again, is politically fragile.

    One of Ghani’s main backers, Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek leader, has formed a new alliance with powerful leaders including former Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor and ethnic Hazara leader Mohammad Mohaqeq.

    According to IEC figures, some 8.9 million people have registered to vote.

  • Suicide bomber hits Shi’ite area of Afghanistan, killing seven

    Suicide bomber hits Shi’ite area of Afghanistan, killing seven

    Officials said a suicide bomber blew himself up in, Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday, killing seven people in an attack apparently intended to hit crowds gathered to commemorate a political leader from the mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority.

    Nasrat Rahimi, a deputy interior ministry spokesman, said one policeman and six civilians were killed and seven civilians wounded when the bomber was stopped at a security checkpoint.

    He said the bomber appeared to have intended to attack crowds gathered for the anniversary celebrations of the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, a Hazara political leader killed by the Taliban in 1995.

    A string of attacks on Shi’ite mosques and Hazara gatherings has been claimed by an affiliate of Islamic State, although many Afghan and Western security officials say they doubt the group works alone.

    In December, dozens of people were killed in a suicide attack on a Shi’ite cultural center claimed by Islamic State and two months earlier two separate mosque attacks killed at least 72 people.

    The attack came less than two weeks after President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to join peace talks to end more than 16 years of the latest phase of Afghan war.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Three Afghan civilians killed as U.S. troops open fire after bomb attack

    Three Afghan civilians killed as U.S. troops open fire after bomb attack

    Officials said as three Afghan civilians were killed early on Monday morning when American troops opened fire after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

    Attaullah Khogyani, spokesperson for the eastern Nangarhar provincial governor, said a man and his two sons were killed at their home in Ghani Khel, a district in the south of Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan.

    “After the bomb blast hit them, the American forces then started shooting and killed one man and two children nearby,” he said.

    The U.S. military command in Kabul said it was investigating the reports.

    Civilian casualties have running at near record highs as fighting spreads to more areas of Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

    Afghan President Ashraf Ghani generally has been less vocal than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, in publicly criticizing the U.S. military when troops are involved in incidents where civilians are killed.

    On Saturday, three American soldiers were killed and one wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in Nangarhar, where elite U.S. troops have been helping Afghan forces battle Islamic State militants.

    Also over the weekend, an American airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed at least three Afghan policemen and wounded several others during a joint operation by Afghan and U.S. special forces.

    U.S. and Afghan troops have been battling militants in Nangarhar province for months.

    Islamic State, or Daesh as it is generally known in Afghanistan, has established a stronghold in the region, which borders Pakistan.

    U.S. military officials estimate there are about 600 to 800 Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar, but also in the neighboring province of Kunar.

    The increase in involvement by U.S troops and warplanes comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration weighs whether to deploy more troops in the war-torn country.

    Reuters reported in late April that the U.S. administration was carrying out a review of Afghanistan and there were conversations over whether to send between 3,000 and 5,000 U.S. and coalition troops to Afghanistan.

    Deliberations include giving more authority to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters.

    A U.S. official said this could allow U.S. advisers to work with Afghan troops below the corps level, potentially putting them closer to fighting.

  • Cameron was being honest about corruption – Buhari

    Cameron was being honest about corruption – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari has defended British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s comments, caught on video this week, about Nigeria being “fantastically corrupt.”

    Buhari insisted that Cameron had nothing to apologize for, as he was merely talking about what he knows.

    “I think he’s being honest about it,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “I don’t think you can fault him.”

    Speaking at an anti-corruption conference on Wednesday, Buhari said: “I am not demanding an apology from anybody, I am demanding a return of assets.”

    During a conversation with the Queen that was captured on camera on Tuesday, Cameron declared Nigeria and Afghanistan “possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

    The comment came as world leaders gathered in London for an anti-corruption summit, which has been largely overshadowed by Cameron’s gaffe.

    The social media backlash was swift and Nigeria’s presidential spokesman said they were “embarrassing to us.”

    A 2015 report by Transparency International, an independent anti-corruption group, scores Nigeria the world’s 136th most corrupt country, out of 168. Afghanistan fares worse in the survey, coming in at number 166.

    But President Buhari said he was more concerned with fighting corruption than talking about it.

    He said his administration was making inroads with clearing a backlog of “ghost workers” who are claiming salaries fraudulently and by arresting those who embezzled government funds during the previous administration.

    At the opening of the anti-corruption summit on Thursday, Buhari said: “When it comes to tackling corruption, the international community has looked the other way for too long.

    “Nigeria is calling on this summit to trace and facilitate the recovery of stolen funds and assets hidden in secret accounts,” he added.

    Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani also called for a more concerted effort in bringing criminals to justice.

     

     

  • Ghani sworn in as Afghan president

    Ghani sworn in as Afghan president

    Ashraf Ghani has been sworn in as Afghanistan’s president in a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul.

    It comes after six months of deadlock amid a bitter dispute over electoral fraud and a recount of votes.

    Under a United States-brokered unity deal Mr. Ghani takes over the presidency and runner-up Abdullah Abdullah can nominate a figure with prime-ministerial powers, the BBC reports.

    The Taliban has described the deal as a “U.S-orchestrated sham” but Mr. Ghani hailed it as a “big victory.”

    Mr. Ghani took an oath to abide by the constitution at the swearing-in ceremony attended by up to 100 dignitaries.

    He said he would work for long-term peace, promised to tackle corruption and said constitutional changes were needed.

    In his long first speech after being sworn in as the new Afghan president, Ghani promised reform, development, an end to poverty, measures against corruption, and a clean-up of the judiciary.

     

  • Afghans vote in crunch run-off poll

    Afghans are voting in run-off polls that will determine who will succeed President Hamid Karzai.

    The choice is between former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.

    It should be the first time that power in Afghanistan has been democratically transferred, the BBC reports.

    But the Taliban has threatened to target polling stations and there are concerns that voting fraud could produce a disputed result.

    As most foreign soldiers prepare to withdraw by the end of this year, whoever becomes the new leader will take over a country where Taliban insurgents remain active, where the economy is weak, where corruption is endemic and where the rule of law is for the most part unenforced.

    The Taliban militants had pledged to do their utmost to disrupt the vote with “non-stop” assaults.

    “By holding elections, the Americans want to impose their stooges on the people,” the insurgents said on their website.

    Afghans who’ve lived through all the devastating wars since President Najibullah’s Soviet-backed rule are hoping this election will help turn the page on their punishing history.

    It will be the first time in Afghan history that power is transferred peacefully, from one elected leader to another.