30 December 2018•Update: 31 December 2018
By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan
The landmark Afghan presidential elections were delayed on Sunday for at least three months amid political wrangling and proposed peace talks in the war-ravaged country.
Gulajan Abdulbadi Sayaad, chairman for the Independent Election Commission, said the commission is not in a position to hold the polls on the due date of April 2019 due to technical glitches, security concerns, and cold weather.
He said the polls would now be rescheduled for July 20.
The 2014 presidential elections were marred by widespread claims of irregularities that almost brought the country to the brink of another civil war before then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened and convinced the two main rivals, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani (current president) and Abdullah Abdullah (power-sharing CEO), to form a national unity government.
