KABUL (Pajhwok): National United Party of Afghanistan leader Noorul Haq Ulumi on Wednesday registered his candidacy with the Independent Election (IEC) in Kabul to contest the July 20 presidential election.
Ulumi, who became the sixth presidential hopeful to register, is intended to run for the presidency, with Bashir Bezhan as his first and Naeem Ghaur as his second vice-presidential candidates.
Born in 1942 in capital Kabul, Ulumi started his education in Habiba High School and later joined the military and in 1970 he went to the US for a two-year higher military education.
He served as a member of the parliament from 2005 to 2010 representing Kandahar. He is currently the leader of the National United Party of Afghanistan that is a member of the National Coalition of Afghanistan.
He also served as interior minister in the National Unity Government (NUG) till January-February 2016.
Talking to media on Wednesday afternoon in Kabul, Noorul Haq Ulumi said, “With the help of God and support of the people of Afghanistan, peace and security will be my priority if our team wins the upcoming July 20th presidential poll”.
Ulumi termed the IEC’s management as weak and said the commission had been unable to implement the law as required.
He accused the government of interfering in the IEC affairs and bringing its independence under question. He said they would struggle for fair, transparent and rigging-free elections.
Earlier, Zalmai Rassoul , Abdul Latif Pedram, Mohammad Hakim Torsan, Sayed Anwar Jalili and Inayatulla Hafiz have registered as presidential candidates in the July 20 election.
According to the IEC, the candidate registration process would continue until July 20 and there is no plan to extend this process.
A presidential candidate should be a Muslim, Afghan citizen, having completed the age of 40 and should present 100,000 supporters and pay a million afghanis to the commission based on the electoral law.