Abdul Badi Sayad, president of the Independent Electoral Commission, has announced that the presidential elections in Afghanistan will be held next 20 in April 2019.
9 million voters have registered, including 3 million women. Concerns remain strong over the violence that continues to shake the country, while the authorities are committed to fighting the armed struggle of the Taliban and the Isis that continues to grow.
Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, spokesman for the commission, said that "security is an issue that we hope will be resolved by then" and confirmed that the authorities are committed to "ensuring the transparency and integrity of both parliamentary and presidential elections".
The last presidential elections in the 2014 were marked by accusations of heavy rigging by both sides.
In fact, at the end of the elections, both contenders, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, declared victory. It took months for an agreement to be reached to form a national unity government with Ghani as president and Abdullah in charge of the executive.
For the UN mission in Afghanistan, the announcement of the upcoming elections is "an important moment for democracy" in the country. The head of mission, Tadamichi Yamamoto called on "all parties to respect the rules to ensure the necessary conditions for having credible elections".