Taliban issues boycott call for Afghan elections

LONDON - The Taliban has called for a boycott of Afghanistan’s parliamentary election after waging a campaign of violence and intimidation that has left three candidates dead.

“We call on our Muslim nation to boycott this process and thus foil all foreign processes and drive away the invaders from your country by sticking to jihad and Islamic resistance,” The Telegraph quoted a Taliban statement, as saying.

Over 2,500 candidates are contesting Saturday’s election for the 249 seats in the lower house of parliament in the second poll of its kind since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion.

Implying threats against the election process, the statement said that the Taliban have drawn up “certain measures… to frustrate this American process and will implement them on the day when the illegitimate process is conducted”.

The militants had also issued threats last month, when they said that anyone associated with the vote was a target.

In dozens of attacks, they have since killed three candidates, and in the worst incident so far shot dead five campaign workers in Herat. (ANI)