KABUL (Pajhwok): Dr. Faramarz Tamana on Thursday became seventh person to register his candidacy with the Independent Election (IEC) in Kabul for the July 20 presidential election.
Tamana is intended to run for the presidency, with Pro. Sayed Qais Sayeedi as his first and Dr. Mohammad Amin Rishadat as his second vice-presidential candidates.
Tamanna, the former Director General of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in International Studies and also from Tehran University in International Relations.
He has served as chancellor of University of Afghanistan in Kabul and has held positions in Afghan diplomatic missions abroad. He, also, has taught for ten years in several universities.
He is the author of two books (Afghanistan’s Foreign Policy) and (US Foreign Policy towards Afghanistan) and tens of articles covering security and international relations.
Talking to media on Thursday afternoon in Kabul, Dr. Farmarz Tamana said: “We (Afghans) have a great reputation and honor but unfortunately it has not been used for Afghanistan’s development over the course of 100 years and the capacities and potentials are more conducive to the satisfaction of foreigners or mostly engaged in ethnic and domestic issues”.
He hoped his electoral team “Afghanistan Development and Plan” would fill the gap with specialists and would create a government that not only care about foreign ties but also work for the country’s development.
“There are some problems in the election process, which we also saw in the parliamentary elections, but still we hope the experiences learned from the parliamentary elections can help improve the presidential election."
To a answer about US envoy for reconciliation in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s efforts for peace talks, he said he believed only Khalilzad’s efforts would not succeed as peace-related issues must start from within and a large national consensus consisting of various internal groups should be formed.
Earlier, Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, with the slogan "national unity, justice, security, peace, moderation and equality," Abdul Latif Pedram, with the slogan "freedom, justice and security"; Mohammad Hakim Thorsan, with the slogan "We act, do not chant’; Seyyed Noorollah Jalili; and Inayatullah Hafez have nominated for the presidential election.
According to the IEC, the candidate registration process would continue until Jan 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.