American president Donald Trump's decision to stall the dialogues between the US and the Taliban seemed to be a boon for Afghanistan's President, Ashraf Ghani, as he has insisted on holding a key election in a time span of fewer than 21 days despite people thinking that the peace deal might play its part in sidelining the elections. A sudden halt with respect to the deal to put a stop to USA's longest-standing war, Afghanistan is facing a presidential vote amid tensions that give the feeling of violence on a greater scale. 

Taliban's iron grip over Afghanistan

The extremist group who has half of Afghanistan in its grip has told the citizens to not vote and has made it clear that meetings and voting booths would be under their target. With the collapse of the peace deal with America that would have ended the decades-long war, the Taliban has lost every ounce of trust and has promised to keep on fighting. The militant group has also termed President Ghani's government a marionette of the US. 

Ashraf Ghani insisted that the elections go ahead even with the US more inclined towards inking a peace deal that would determine Afghanistan's future. A lot of people contesting the elections were so certain that the peace deal would delay the elections that they did not organize a campaign to gain votes for themselves. Even though certain restrictions held back Ghani, he is still gunning for a second term with an agenda that would deal with the problem of the Taliban. 

Read: US President Trump Cancels Peace Talks; Taliban Says 'unbelievable'

At this point in time, Afghanistan needs a leader who would lead the country on a path that would ensure a peaceful environment along with a democratic agenda. Ghani said that the people of his country should be given the freedom to decide who will lead them. 

A chance of having a democratic environment

Ashraf Ghani still has a chance of having an elected Afghan government if he attends the United Nations General Assembly on September 24 and pitches a deal to the US President but the confidence in the election process in Afghanistan is low as the elections that were held in 2014 witnessed disturbance that stretched for months ending in the formation of a national unity government on a thin sheet of ice between Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. 

Read: Afghanistan-US Peace Talks Paused Post US Decision To Extract Troops

The Afghan elections this year have the strength of 5373 polling centers and about 500 of them are present in areas that are under the control of Taliban but a major problem that has cropped up is the confusion about how the peace deal would affect this year's election process. 

There was a strong argument that the elections would take place as originally planned as many Afghan citizens have risked their lives and are ready to risk again because it is not up to anyone else to deprive them of their rights that would eventually mend the fractured political conditions in Afghanistan. 

Read: Shattering Taliban Attack In Kabul Even As US Deal Nears

Read: Kabul Attack: President Ashraf Ghani’s Office Condemns Heinous Taliban Attack Amid Dialogue

(With inputs from AP)