No re-election plan shared with US: Menapal

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Presidential Palace on Tuesday said no strategy of re-election within six months had been shared with anyone, refuting media reports in this regard.

Presidential Spokesperson Dawa Khan Menapal said: “The president always stresses that he would transfer power to his elected successor.”

He said the future of the people of Afghanistan would be decided through elections, stressing that an interim or transitional governments are rejected.

Earlier, media reports claimed that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will propose a new presidential election plan within six months, under a peace plan he will put forward as a counter-offer to a US proposal that he rejects.

Two senior government officials told Reuters that Ghani will unveil his proposal at an international gathering in Turkey next month, signaling his refusal to accept Washington’s plan for his elected government to be replaced by an interim administration, the officials said.

Washington, which agreed last year to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by May 1 after nearly two decades, is pressing for a peace deal to end the war between the government and the Taliban. Talks between the Afghan sides in Qatar have stalled.

US Special Envoy ZalmayKhalilzad has been circulating a proposal that would replace the Kabul government with an interim administration. But Ghani has voiced vehement opposition to any solution that requires his government to step aside for unelected successors.

“The counter proposal which we are going to present at the Istanbul meeting would be to call for early presidential elections if the Taliban agree on a ceasefire,” one senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Another Afghan government official said: “The president would never agree to step down and any future government should be formed through democratic process, not a political deal.”

A third senior official also said Ghani’s proposal would include possible early elections, although he did not specify the exact time frame for the vote. The third official said Ghani had already shared his roadmap with Khalilzad.

Nh/ma

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