President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Tuesday claimed that some countries are attempting to interfere in Afghanistan's electoral affairs for their own interests.
Pointing to recent comments from American senator John Kerry, Aimal Faizi said it was one example of how foreigners had been involved in previous presidential elections and it won't happen again – although he denied the Senator's claim of helping Karzai gain power in the last election.
"This is in itself a big confession that this American senator that America had interfered in the previous election," Faizi told TOLOnews. "But this time [the Afghan] government will try to hold a transparent election without any violations and without the interests of the regional and world countries interfering in Afghanistan."
Kerry warned in a Senate hearing last week that if the Afghan Presidential election was not transparent and fair then there is possibility the international community will completely leave Afghanistan beyond 2014.
"Having an election that passes muster and is acceptable according to international standards and observers will be critical to our ability to have the kind of transition we want to have, and to have confidence that the government that succeeds in 2014 has legitimacy," Kerry said of the 2014 Afghan presidential poll.
"If it doesn't have legitimacy, if we don't succeed in that effort, it's going to be very, very difficult to convince the American people, and to convince our allies in Isaf and beyond, to stay engaged in this effort."
He added his personal experience with the last election did not meet these standards.
"I went through this personally with President Karzai in the last election where there were serious questions about the propriety of the process and we had to sort of strike a compromise about it. I don't think they'll be room for a compromise in the aftermath here," Kerry said.
Faizi disregarded Kerry's suggestion that Karzai's presidential win was questionable.
"Well, that is only a claim that Kerry made but he has to prove. More important is they've admitted Afghanistan's claim that foreigners intervened," Faizi said.
Karzai has said that security challenges present the biggest threat to the 2014 presidential poll and emphasised that the Afghan government will make every effort for the people to attend the ballot on time.
Meanwhile, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Tuesday also claimed that people are attempting to "intervene" in the election process, only the IEC said it was not foreigners, but Afghans.
IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said government officials and agencies are interfering in the IEC work, but it will not be tolerated.
"Undoubtedly, everyone, and even various [government] agencies want to intervene but they will not find any chance for intervention," he said.