Afghanistan will hold its delayed parliamentary elections on September 18th, a joint Afghan-UN election commission said today.
The election will require a major security operation to guard against violence by Taliban insurgents and intimidation by regional warlords vying for power in Afghanistan's fledgling democracy.
As well as the parliamentary elections, provincial assembly elections will also take place on September 18th, Bismillah Bismil, chairman of the Joint Electoral Management Body, told a news conference.
The polls have been delayed several times and were supposed to have taken place at the same time as a presidential election won by President Hamid Karzai last October.