Hizb-e-Islami Mediates Between the Candidates

10 years ago | Posted in: Afghanistan, Latest Politics News | 533 Views

Officials of the Hizb-e Islami party have confirmed that the party has engaged in talks with the presidential candidates and exchanged letters with their electoral teams to mediate the two camps in hopes of pushing the election process forward.

The word of Hizb-e-Islami’s interaction to mediate between the candidates has now reached the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Ghairat Baheer, who is in charge of the political committee of the party, stated that since the prolongation of the electoral process is not in the interest of the country, Hizb-e-Islami’s leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar tried to mediate between the candidates to settle the disagreements.

“We are in regular contact with the two electoral teams and our delegation has gone to Afghanistan on the principle stance to persuade the two candidates to halt brawls,” Baheer said. “They must not protest and claim fraud if they lose or claim transparency if they win; that could push the country toward a crisis.”

In addition, in his interview with TOLOnews, Baheer said that people’s votes must be respected and the election process must be led by Afghans themselves.

“Those responsible for the brawls will pay the price,” Baheer added. “The good thing about democracy is that it is a matter of majority and minority. Those who gain the majority votes will have the right to form the next government.”

Ahsraf Ghani-Ahmadzai’s team has expressed optimism about Hizb-e-Islami’s recent statements.

“Five parts of Hizb-e-Islami have already endorsed the charter of the ‘Convergence and Continuity’ team. They—including one of their candidates—have announced their support for us,” member of Ghani-Ahmadzai’s electoral camp, Moeen Marastyal, said. “Now if they accept the charter of our team, there would not be any problems in their participation in the ‘national unity government.”

This is while Hizb-e-Islami’s authorities as well as motives have been questioned in its attempts to mediate the electoral situation. Currently, the party does not have an official political presence in the country and majority of its members live outside the country, particularly in Pakistan.

Hizb-e-Islami had talked about negotiations with the Afghan government in the past too. However, the government remained skeptical, claiming that the party had attacked the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) on several occasions.

Tolonews

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