Kohdamani dropped from race to presidency

KABUL) has disqualified a candidate from running in next year’s presidential elections on failing to meet the required candidacy criteria, an official said on Sunday.

The decision to remove Dil Agha Kohdamani from the list of registered presidential candidates came during vetting process of documents candidates had submitted with the IEC, an election official confided to Pajhwok Afghan News.

Privy to the vetting process, the official said Kohdamani had failed to produce 100,000 voter cards of his supporters.

Besides other conditions, candidates have to provide $20,000 (1000, 000 afs) in cash guarantee to the IEC, which is expected to announce a preliminary list of approved candidates on Oct. 19 before handing their documents to the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) for vetting.

A final list of candidates will be displayed on November 16 after completion of the vetting process.

With Kohdamani’s disqualification, the number of presidential candidates has reduced to 26 from 27, amid efforts by a 14-member jirga of influential former jihadis and tribal elders at reducing the number of presidential candidates.

Set up by former president and reconciliation commission head, Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the jirga is headed by his deputy Asadullah Wafa, according to the forum’s members.

They said they would make efforts to convince weak presidential candidates to stand down in favour of leading ones. The jirga will call on runners, whose programmes have similarities, to enter alliances to cut short their number.

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