Elections are 'waste of time'

Taliban leader Mullah Omar yesterday dismissed elections due in Afghanistan next year as "a waste of time", posing a challenge to international efforts to ensure a credible poll.
The participation of the Pashtun ethnic group -- from whom the Taliban get most of their support -- is seen as essential to the success of the presidential election, scheduled for April 5.
The vote will be an important test of Afghanistan's progress since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. The United States and other foreign donors say the poll is crucial for the country's future after Nato-led combat 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," Omar said.
"Selection, de facto, takes place in Washington... participation in such elections is only a waste of time, nothing more."
In previous elections, the Taliban called on Afghans to boycott voting, sent fighters to block roads to polling stations and targeted candidates and activists.
The reclusive one-eyed supremo issued a lengthy statement on the Internet ahead of Eid celebrations due to begin in Afghanistan tomorrow to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Omar offered glimmers of hope for peace after 12 years of fighting, saying that the Taliban -- who sheltered al-Qaeda during their harsh rule of Afghanistan from 1996-2001 -- did not seek a return to absolute power.
"(The Taliban) does not think of monopolising power," he said. "Rather we believe in reaching understanding with the Afghans regarding an Afghan-inclusive government based on Islamic principles."
During their rule, the Taliban banned girls from going to school, outlawed television, music and the cinema, and forced women wear the all-covering burqa.
But Omar, who presided over the Islamist regime, signalled a partial change to their extreme interpretation of sharia law.
"To protect ourselves from scarcity and hardships, our young generations should arm themselves with religious and modern educations because modern education is a fundamental need of every society," he said.