A suicide bomber struck the home of a candidate in Afghanistan parliamentary elections due to take place later this month, killing the candidate and seven other people, a provincial official said.
The candidate, Saleh Mohammad Achekzai, was holding a meeting at the time of the attack, which also killed several of his bodyguards, Attahullah Afghan, head of the southern Helmand provincial council told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
It was the second suicide attack to target a parliamentary candidate since campaigning officially kicked off on September 28 for the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20.
There are 2,565 candidates vying for seats in the 249-member chamber, including 417 women candidates.
On October 2, an attack on a rally in the eastern province of Nangarhar killed 13 people and wounded more than 40.
At least five have been murdered in targeted killings so far, according to the Independent Election Commission.
Preparations for the ballot, which is more than three years late, have been in turmoil for months and there has been widespread speculation about whether the vote would go ahead.
Bureaucratic inefficiency, allegations of industrial-scale fraud and an eleventh-hour pledge for biometric verification of voters threaten to derail the process and any hope of a credible result.
The Taliban armed group has called for the boycott of parliamentary elections scheduled to be held later this month.
“People who are trying to help in holding this process successfully by providing security should be targeted and no stone should be left unturned for the prevention and failure [of the election],” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid earlier said in the statement.
Helmand, bordering Pakistan, has long been one of the strongholds of the Taliban group, which has been waging an armed rebellion since they were removed from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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