KABUL: Afghanistan’s election commission yesterday announced the final list of candidates for next year’s presidential and provincial council polls. It will be Afghanistan’s first democratic power transfer. President Hamid Karzai, appointed following the US-led invasion of 2001, must step down after serving two terms. “Eleven candidates have made it to the final list for presidential election,” Abdul Rahman Hotak, deputy head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), said. More than 2,700 candidates, including 308 women, have made to the final list for provincial council elections. “We have done all our vetting honestly, and without accepting any pressure on us. We have done it independently.” He said the main problems with the disqualified candidates were the voter cards of supporters the candidates needed to provide to the IEC. Election authorities last month cut down the initial list of 26 candidates for the April 5 presidential vote to 10, but the election watchdog on Tuesday reinstated one disqualified candidate.
Insurgents kill police chief
KABUL: An Afghan district police chief was killed in an ambush by militants in the volatile province of Helmand yesterday, officials said. Tooryalai Khan, police chief of Helmand’s Marjah district, was leading an operation against Taliban insurgents in the area when he was ambushed early in the morning, said provincial spokesman Omar Zewak. His bodyguard was wounded in the attack. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Gas pipeline in a limbo
ISLAMABAD: The US has refused to exempt the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline from possible sanctions, creating more uncertainty about the future of the project. Pakistan had, earlier, given government guarantees pertaining to the IP pipeline to Iran, making it difficult for the present government to back out from the project. Due to the threat of sanctions, however, Islamabad has been unable to secure the required funding for the IP pipeline. It even placed a $2bn request before the Iranian government in order to finance the project. Pakistan took up the issue with US authorities at a meeting on the sidelines of the revised bilateral strategic dialogue in Washington last week.AGENCIES
