The one-month formal campaign of the candidates for the upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections will begin on Wednesday, a spokesman of the UN-sponsored Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said Monday.

"The official campaign period for the Wolesi Jirga or lower house and Provincial Council elections will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 17," Sultan Ahmad Baheen announced at a press conference here.

The electioneering, he said, will continue until Sept. 15 with a 48-hour campaign silence period before the polling day next month.

Over 10 million Afghans eligible to vote would elect their representatives through ballots to a 249-seat parliament in the post-Taliban nation amid tight security on Sept. 18.

Besides holding rallies, distributing posters and leaflets, the candidates would also have access to private and state-run media during the period.

"Each Wolesi Jirga candidate will be allocated an advertisement of five minutes to be broadcast twice on radio or one advertisement of two minutes to be broadcast twice on television," the spokesman added.

Candidates for Provincial Councils, he said, will be entitled to one advertisement of four minutes broadcast once on radio or one advertisement of two minutes broadcast once on television.

Remnants of former fundamentalist Taliban regime who term the election "a ploy" to "legitimize the US occupation of Afghanistan" have vowed to disrupt the coming landmark legislative elections.

Source: Xinhua