Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 19
Trend:
Kazakhstan believes that the holding of peaceful parliamentary election in Afghanistan in October this year is under threat, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN Kairat Umarov said at a meeting of the Security Council, RIA Novosti reported.
The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN welcomed the recent initiative of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to cease fire during the Holy holiday of Eid al-Adha and expressed regret that his opponents rejected this initiative, the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan published Sept. 19 reads.
"This means that the hope for peaceful parliamentary election in October is under threat. We are concerned by the statements of some Afghan political parties that intend to boycott the upcoming election. The postponement of implementation of the election may worsen the situation in Afghanistan," the press service of the Foreign Ministry quoted Umarov as saying.
During the meeting, the head of the Kazakh delegation expressed solidarity with the government of Afghanistan in that the leading role in stabilizing the situation in the country should belong to the Afghans themselves. At the same time, he drew the attention of the Security Council members to the increase in the number of militants of the IS terrorist group in Afghanistan, especially in the northern part of the country, which poses a threat to the security of the Central Asian states.
In this context, the ambassador noted again the approach proposed by Kazakhstan on the mutual relationship of security and development, when sustainable economic development and creation of jobs will contribute to greater employment of population, prevention of recruitment of young people by terrorist groups and strengthening of security.
The parliamentary election in Afghanistan has been scheduled for October 20, 2018. The members of the lower house of the National Parliament will be elected at this election. The last parliamentary election in this country was held in 2010. The term of powers of the Parliament expired on June 22, 2016, but the election was postponed by President Ashraf Ghani for the reasons of security and instability in the country.