The Peace and Moderation election campaign team led by former National Security Advisor Mohammad Haneef Atmar on Thursday informed of suspending their campaign in the view of evolving political situation in the country.
The peace process and Afghan government’s “extralegal actions” were two other reasons for the decision.
Mr. Atmar is accompanied by former vice president Mohammad Yunus Qanuni and former deputy chief executive Mohammad Mohaqiq as his first and second running mates respectively.
A spokesman of the team, Qadir Shah, told TOLOnews on Friday that their campaign has been suspended for an unknown time.
“We stop our campaign for an unknown time. We are watching the situation and we are monitoring,” he said.
Despite that the Peace and Moderation team has brought peace efforts as a reason to suspend their activities, but sources said that the campaign has been stopped due to failure of the leadership of the team.
Reports emerged in the last two weeks that former Balkh governor and Chief Executive of Jamiat-e-Islami party, Atta Mohammad Noor, who is a member of the Peace and Moderation team, has asked for announcing him as a candidate for premiership in the coming election. But Mr. Atmar has rejected this demand and has said that decision on premiership post will be made by a grand council.
The sources said that such a demand increased the rift in the team and resulted to the suspension of its campaign.
One member of the team, Mohammad Mohaqeq, in a Facebook post, complained about lack of seriousness by his teammates.
“When figures are not close to each other due to rift on power. This needs strong management which was not present in Peace and Moderation team and it collapsed ultimately,” said Habib-Ur-Rahman Pedram, an MP.
Atmar resigned from his post as National Security Advisor to President Ghani last year in August and entered the presidential race while having the support of well-known former jihadi leaders including Mohammad Ismail Khan.
Differences between Atmar and Noor initially surfaced after Atmar during a televised interview said that the president should have the authority to dismiss or appoint the prime minister.
Sources on Thursday said that Noor wants to appear in the Atmar’s team as prime minister from now while Atmar believes that the issue should be discussed at a Loya Jirga that will be convened once the team wins the elections.
In addition, Atmar’s running mate for first vice president Mohammad Younus Qanooni has urged Noor to support Atmar.
Sources also said that Qanooni has already separated his way from Atmar despite has not formally stepped down from the team and this has compelled Atmar to withdraw from the elections race.
Previously, another political movement Harakat-e-Siasi Azad Afghanistan-led by Sayed Mohammad Ali Jawed once an ally to Atmar split from the Atmar’s team.