KABUL (Pajhwok): Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) supreme leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on Thursday addressed his first election campaign gathering in Kabul, alleging “some figures are using government resources and authority to plan a high scale rigging.”
Hekmatyar, a presidential candidate, told the gathering in Kabul that he would bring about fundamental changes in the economic, political and social areas and replace corrupt figures with patriots if he won the election.
“I believe this time the presidential election would be transparent and just. If there is no fraud and all eligible Afghans vote in the democratic exercise, I will beat my competitors,” he said.
However, he said some figures were planning to repeat past experiences and widely rig the Sept. 28 election by limiting people’s participation and using government resources and authority in their own interests.
“They do not want transparent and fair election because they do not believe in the ballot,” Hekmatyar said, without elaborating.
The former warlord said ending the ongoing conflict in the country and ensuring stable peace would be his priority. “Peace cannot be ensured in presence of foreign forces and their puppet government here,” he said.
He said if he won the election, he would he would accept envoys from countries where Afghanistan had its own representatives.
He would cancel the CEO post, remove the third vice-presidential post, prevent political bribery and scrape posts created in contradiction to the Constitution and cancel all decrees bypassing Islamic Sharia, the Constitution and the Parliament.
“Democracy is a deceiving slogan without clean election, it would create only anarchism and power-sharing style government,” he said.
Hekmatyar said he would stand firm against those who threatened independence and sovereignty of Afghanistan.
“We believe there is no alternative to election, the war cannot end until all sides involved accept that the government should be chosen by the Afghans,” he said.
mds/ma

 

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Download “Pajhwok” mobile App, to read and access latest news, features, interviews, videos and photos about Afghanistan.