The Taliban on Monday vowed to attack Afghanistan's crucial presidential election next month, warning the citizens that they must not participate in the "sham" poll manipulated by the United States or they will "use all force" to disrupt the elections.
Afghanistan is preparing for a poll that if successful will prepare the way for the country's first ever peaceful, democratic transfer of power. Security and fraud are seen as the two largest and interconnected threats. Some of the worst vote-rigging in the 2009 poll occurred in "ghost" polling stations, vote centres that were opened in violent areas where few or no locals were willing to risk defying the Taliban to cast a genuine vote but hundreds of ballots were registered.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to media that the Taliban are also telling clerics across to country to spread the word that the election is "an American conspiracy."
The April vote is seen as key to Afghanistan's stability ahead of the final withdrawal of international combat troops at the end of December. Previous elections have been fraught with allegations of widespread fraud and some surveys have shown a deep mistrust among most Afghans toward the polling and candidates. President Hamid Karzai is not in the race since he cannot run for a third term.
Monday's Taliban statement told Afghans they should "reject completely" the election and not put themselves in danger by going to the polls. Mujahid did not specify what kind of attacks the Taliban planned but in the 2009 presidential election, the militants assaulted and killed election workers, targeted candidates and also attacked voters, in some cases cutting people's fingers off.
"We have given orders to all our mujahedeen (holy warriors) to use all force at their disposal to disrupt these upcoming sham election to target all its workers, activists, callers, security apparatus and offices,"
The Taliban had earlier called the election a waste of time, but the English-language statement posted on Monday was more explicit in threatening violence against anyone associated with it.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan encourages all its countrymen to avoid becoming victims of the enemy conspiracies in the upcoming elections process; reject it wholly and do not put yourselves in danger," the statement said. "If anyone still persists on participating then they are solely responsible of any loss in the future."
There have already been several attacks against election workers. Last year, insurgent gunmen in northern Kunduz province assassinated the provincial head of the Independent Election Commission, the government body organising the logistics of the vote.
More recently, in western Herat province two men from the team of the leading candidate Abdullah Abdullah were gunned down the day before campaigning officially began, although that attack was not claimed by insurgents.
Repeating earlier allegations that the election is a rigged sham, the Taliban said the vote would continue US dominance of the country, even after foreign troops left, by selecting a head of state who was in effect a puppet.
"It [the US] will install a head of state who appears to be an Afghan but will have American mentality, vision, deeds, creed and ideals while openly being in conflict with the clear teachings of the sacred religion of Islam."
The US has strenuously denied any meddling in this election, although the former defence secretary Robert Gates in his memoirs described efforts in 2009 to ensure Karzai was defeated, manoeuvring he described as a "clumsy and failed putsch".
