Mullah Omar discharges Afghan elections as ‘waste of time’

KABUL: (MEP) – Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Tuesday discharged key elections due in Afghanistan next year as “a waste of time”, posing a major challenge to international efforts to ensure a credible poll, (AFP) reported.

Participation of the Pashtun ethnic group – from which the Taliban gain most of their support – is seen as essential to the success of the presidential election, scheduled for April 5.

The vote will be a benchmark test of Afghanistan’s progress since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, and the United States and other foreign donors say the poll is crucial for the country’s future after NATO-led troops withdraw next year.

“As to the deceiving drama under the name of elections 2014, our pious people will not tire themselves out, nor will they participate in it,” Mullah Omar said.