Afghanistan Presidential Election Once Again Delayed by Two Months

(Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan’s election agency once again postponed the country’s presidential ballot by two months due to changes in election laws, along with management and technical problems.

The commission won’t be able to hold the elections on July 20 as initially planned, Musafir Quqandi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, said by phone on Wednesday. “We again need time to reform and fix issues that hindered elections last year.”

The IEC had also previously delayed the polls from April 20, citing similar problems. Apart from the presidential polls, three other elections are also now scheduled on Sept. 28 and these include district and provincial council ballots, as well as parliamentary elections in Ghazni province that were postponed in October due to poor security.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani dismissed the previous 12 electoral officials after he signed a decree for the election law amendment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at enajafizada1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Chris Kay

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