KABUL (SW) – Analysts believe President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani is trying to buy time by proposing early elections as an alternate to the interim government in the country.
Political analyst Asif Ashna told Salam Watandar that President Ghani wants to persuade the US not to oust him from power. “Mr. Ghani just wants to buy time for himself and with a series of time games he wants to convince the Americans not to leave him out of the interim government,” he said.
Ashna said he believed the time for ‘Ghani as a puppet ruler’ was over.
According to analysts, holding elections after six months is not a practical plan due to the bitter experience of the people from the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Akram Arefi, a university professor and political scientist, also said that the proposal to hold elections in the next six months was not practical. According to him, the Taliban are trying to engage and gain power and will not enter the system through elections. “It is practically impossible to hold elections in six months as a practical solution, and it is not feasible because the Taliban are not ready to accept the elections at the moment,” he said
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will propose a new presidential election within six months under a peace plan he will put forward as a counter-offer to a U.S. proposal that he rejects, two senior government officials told Reuters.
Ghani will unveil his proposal at an international gathering in Turkey next month, signaling his refusal to accept Washington’s plan for his elected government to be replaced by an interim administration, the officials said.
But he will participate only if Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada, or Mullah Yaqub, the son of the militants’ late founder, Mullah Omar, attends, one of the officials said.
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