KABUL – *The Taliban has rejected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s call forthe group to take part in the upcoming parliamentary and district councilelections. *

In a statement issued by the group on Sunday night, they reiterated theirstance that Afghanistan is an occupied country.

This comes after Ghani on Saturday officially launched the voterregistration process and signed up to vote in the upcoming elections.

Speaking at the event, Ghani reiterated the peace offer made in February tothe Taliban and said they must end the war and register as a politicalgroup.

He also said the Taliban should prepare themselves to take part in theelections adding that elections were a means to end disagreements.

But the Taliban said in their statement that Afghanistan is occupied, withthousands of foreign troops in the country and that major political andmilitary decisions are “taken by the occupiers”.

“We have seen in past elections that people have been cheated and the finaldecision was taken by John Kerry (former US Secretary of State), and theNational Unity Government was created at the US embassy in Kabul,” thestatement read.

The group also called on the people to boycott the elections.

The Taliban has still not however responded to Ghani’s peace offer made atthe Kabul Process meeting at the end of January.

Calls meanwhile for the group to join the peace process have been growing –from within Afghanistan and the international community.

However, last week, Hakimullah Mujahid, a former member of the insurgentgroup said the Taliban are holding discussions about Ghani’s peace offer.

Mujahid, who is now a member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC),said: “The Taliban are conducting consultations and there is thepossibility that they give a positive response to the Afghan government, ata time that the war is going on, we hope that the Taliban come up with apositive response.”

Pierre Mayaudon, the European Union’s Head of Delegation to Afghanistan,also commented on the issue recently and said the Taliban’s failure so farto reject the offer raises hopes that the group will act in a positivemanner.

“The absence of a response by the Taliban is not a sign of refusal, may beit is a sign that they are debating about what kind of response they cangive to this peace plan which is very complex. So we are not so concernedabout the absence of a response,” said Mayaudon.