Senior Afghan politician urged people and politicians to support ‘National Consensus� initiation on the eve of Afghanistan�s upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

Ahmad Wali Massoud, chairman of the Massoud Foundation and younger brother of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a powerful Afghan military commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation, said the ‘National Consensus� initiation aims to make a national awakening and build trust across the country.

Addressing a gathering in the eastern province of Herat, he said change of present presidential system to parliamentary system is also on the agenda of the National Consensus initiation.

The Afghan politician further accused the government of planning to bring the country into crisis in the election time, noting that the allied political currents should unite and prevent the crisis in the upcoming election.

Massoud pointed to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, stance on the effort, and said, It is too soon to predict that he will join the National Consensus initiation or not.

He called Afghanistan�s peace process unsuccessful and noted that Afghanistan�s national unity government is structurally weak and it has not been able to make peace inside the government.

The current government�s weakness prepared the ground for foreign countries� infiltration into Afghanistan, Massoud noted.

Parliamentary elections were scheduled to be held in Afghanistan on 15 October 2016, to elect members of the House of the People, but were postponed to 7 July 2018. The country�s presidential election is also scheduled to be held in 2019.