Afghanistan Delays Vote in Kandahar After Commander Killed

Date: 19 October 2018 - 21:11

News ID: ۵۸۶۵۶

KABUL (Dispatches) – Saturday's parliamentary election in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar will be delayed by a week after the assassination of one of the country's most powerful security chiefs dealt a stunning blow to the Western-backed government.
General Abdul Razeq, the Kandahar police commander, was killed outside the provincial governor's office on Thursday, when a bodyguard opened fire on a group of officials as they left a meeting with General Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
At least two other senior provincial officials were killed. The Taliban claimed the attack, saying their target was U.S. Gen. Scott Miller.
Miller was not wounded but the regional intelligence agency commander was killed and the provincial governor severely wounded, crippling the leadership of one of the country's most strategically important provinces.
Although nominally a provincial police chief, Razeq was one of the most powerful political figures in Afghanistan and a formidable opponent of the Taliban, with unchallenged authority across the volatile south of the country.
The decision to suspend the vote was taken over the objections of some officials who warned that any delay would threaten the whole process and hand the Taliban a major propaganda victory.
Iran strongly denounced the assassination in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, urging the conflicting sides to cease violence on the eve of parliamentary polls that have been delayed in the province by a week as a result of the assassinations.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Friday condemned the attack and offered sympathy to the Afghan government and nation as well as the bereaved families of the victims.
The terrorist attack came just two days before the parliamentary elections, which has been postponed until next week, according to Afghan officials.
Hafizullah Hashimi, spokesman of the Independent Election Commission, said the decision to delay the vote had been taken because the people of Kandahar were "morally not ready to vote" following the death of the commander, General Abdul Razeq, who was killed by the rogue bodyguard of another top official.
In the eight years since Afghanistan last held parliamentary elections, a resurgent Taliban have carried out near-daily attacks on security forces, seizing large swathes of the countryside and threatening major cities. A Daesh affiliate has launched a wave of bombings targeting the country's Shia minority, killing hundreds. Both groups have threatened to attack anyone taking part in the vote.
Despite the widespread pessimism, analysts and activists say the elections – which were delayed for three years because of insecurity – send an important message to the Taliban that no matter how unpopular the current government is, the political system is here to stay.
Security fears have forced the Independent Election Commission to close about 2,000 polling centers. It has cancelled the vote in 11 of the country's nearly 400 districts, as well as in the entire eastern province of Ghazni, where the Taliban control the countryside and laid siege to the provincial capital for five days in July. More than 50,000 security forces will be deployed to defend polling stations.

Afghan National Army soldiers stand guard Oct. 17, 2018, at a checkpoint in Kabul ahead of parliamentary elections.