It is really important for Afghanistan to have some very important political changes before the year 2014 when the international troops will complete their withdrawal. One of the most important factors in the political development of Afghanistan will be the 2014 elections. It is necessary that the elections should be free and fair and should have the capacity to address the requirements of the time.

However, evoking the memories of 2009 -2010 elections, we come to know that we have to deal with some very serious problems regarding the coming elections. Unless the international community or international organizations do support Afghan government it would be very difficult to have free and fair elections on schedule.

The fear regarding the schedule of the elections is a genuine one as the election schedule coincides with the withdrawal of international troops. Though there are many other factors as well that will be influencing the 2014 elections, security will, as usual, remain a big challenge.

Jan Kubis, United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has ensured that UN will definitely support the country's electoral authorities to ensure the sustainability, integrity and inclusiveness of future polls. He, in a meeting with Independent Election Commission (IEC) Chairman Fazl Ahmad Manawi, has said, "I plan being an active partner of the government, the institutions and the civil society of Afghanistan in working to strengthen the integrity of future polls."

It is really important that UN must have an active role during the process so as to make sure that the 2014 elections should will not be marred by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud.

A part from the transparency of elections, there are some other issues as well that have been playing dominant role in making the election system suffer from inadequacy. The issues like the absence of a party system elections and an incompetent voting system have influenced the elections to a great extent.

It is really important that the government authorities along with the international community and organizations must also have a thorough look at these issues as well. Moreover, the split-elections system that supports holding the presidential elections separately from the parliamentary elections have large influence on the overall elections budget. If the elections are conducted one after the other immediately, the elections expenditure can be minimized to a considerable extent.