TEHRAN- Breaking their silence on the upcoming parliamentary polls, the Taliban on Monday issued a stern warning of disrupting the October 20 elections, adding to the anxiety of candidates and voters.

The campaigning for polls kicked off last week. Originally slated for 2015, the election has been repeatedly deferred due to the fragile security environment and government’s lack of preparedness.

Taliban and its affiliate groups have always opposed the democratic processes in Afghanistan and have repeatedly issued threats against those participating in elections. This year, the warning was delayed, which coincides with a spate of attacks both by the Taliban ISIS in recent months, which have killed hundreds of people, including six nominees for the parliamentary elections.

In its statement, the Taliban described the elections as a “bogus” U.S. move to consolidate its invasion of Afghanistan and urged Afghans to avoid participation.
“The Islamic Emirate [Taliban], while representing the people and as an emancipative force of the nation, considers this process a fake one as a conspiracy of deceiving the people for achieving the malicious interests of foreigners,” read the statement.

“The Islamic Emirate instructs all its Mujahideen to halt this American-led process throughout the country by creating severe obstacles for it, while taking extensive and intensive care of civilian Afghan lives and their properties,” it added.

Meanwhile, a young Afghan parliamentary candidate was among eight people killed in a suicide attack in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday.