Afghanistan to hold separate presidential, parliamentary elections despite cost

: Afghanistan's election committee said Wednesday that the state will throw separate presidential and parliamentary elections in the adjacent two old age despite the high costs.

The Mugwump Election Committee had recommended the elections be combined to salvage money.

But President Hamid Karzai, Supreme Court members and Parliamentarians have got decided to throw separate elections in 2009 and 2010 as scheduled, said Azizullah Ludin, caput of the commission.

The presidential election in 2004 and parliamentary polls in 2005 together be some $360 million. Much of that money was provided by international donors.

Ludin said it is not yet clear where Islamic State Of Afghanistan will acquire the money to throw a presidential election in 2009 and parliamentary vote in 2010. He said Islamic State Of Afghanistan still owes some $18 million from the last unit of ammunition of elections. Today on IHT.com

"How much the election itself will cost, we don't know, and we don't cognize who will give the money," he said. "Now we cognize that we have got two elections. Now we're going to begin our work."

Cost overproductions in the last elections were high, he said. The state printed 40 million ballots even though lone 11 million people registered.

Afghan functionaries had been debating a proposal for Karzai to widen his term by six calendar calendar months and parliament to cut theirs by six months, so that one election could be held in the middle. But Afghani functionaries decided that would be unconstitutional. Plus, members of parliament didn't desire to cut their footing short, perceivers said.

The day of the month for the 2009 presidential election have not yet been set. Ludin said it would be held in the center of the twelvemonth because autumn and wintertime snowfalls would forestall some countries from voting.