[7][8] Polls were also delayed in Ghazni, due to an intensifying Taliban insurgency in the province, and as of September 2020 still have not been held.

[11] Most of the problems have centered around pre-existing disputes within Afghanistan's coalition government between the two main candidates from the 2014 Presidential election.

In contrast, Afghanistan only has an estimated 12 million voters, making the number of cards in circulation a source of potential fraud.

[13] The continuing failure to set a date for new elections or reform the system led to the United Nations Development Programme to cancel a multimillion-dollar project to fund Afghan electoral bodies in June 2015.

Other proposals included the restructuring of the current election commission; the creation of a clear voter identification system ahead of future polling; and moving to an electoral system that divides provinces into smaller voting districts that can be easily quarantined in case of fraud.

[17] Disagreements over the plan saw two members of the commission; Kawun Kakar and Shah Mahmood Miakhel, who are believed to be close to Mr. Ghani, walking out.

[21][22][23] Delays in the arrival of election workers also caused some polling station to remain open longer so people would be able to cast their vote.

[26][27] The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated it was "encouraged by the high numbers of Afghans who turned out" and praised the efforts which were made to ensure the election would take place.

[36] However, on 6 December, an election complaints agency invalidated all of the votes cast in Kabul Province over fraud allegations, effectively stalling the official release of results.

[39] In September 2020, President Ashraf Ghani issued a new commitment to hold the long-delayed polls in the province in the near future.

[10] According to a spokesperson from the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), their decision to annul the results from the capital could be defended for 25 different reasons - including "major fraud" and the IEC's overall mismanagement of the election.

Rather than permit a new election however, the IEC denounced the ruling and announced its intent to certify the results of Kabul's vote in spite of the IECC's higher authority over the matter.

[37] On February 12, 2019, Afghanistan's coalition government fired all the commissioners responsible for directing the fraud-tainted election.

[43] Meanwhile, opposition politicians are pushing to postpone the presidential election and form an interim government to stabilize the country.

President Ashraf Ghani has insisted that the 2019 presidential election, already pushed back from April to July, be held on time.