Afghanistan: Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, delayed by widespread security worries and logistics problems in conducting a complex vote, will be held in September, nearly a year after originally scheduled, officials said yesterday.
The vote will require a major security operation to guard against violence by Taliban insurgents and intimidation by regional warlords vying for power in the fledgling democracy.
Provincial assembly elections will also take place on September 18th, Bismillah Bismil, chairman of the Joint Electoral Management Body, told a news conference.The parliamentary polls were to have taken place with a presidential election won by Hamid Karzai last October but have been put off several times. Mr Karzai, installed as transitional leader after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, does not have a political party. - (Reuters)