The National Congress Party of Afghanistan has stated that during a poll conducted recently, most respondents favoured a change in Afghanistan's political system, supporting the establishment of a “federal republic system”.
This party announced that the popularity of the Taliban regime and the "presidential republic" has decreased to less than 10%.
The survey, shared with Afghanistan International on Sunday, indicated a rise in separatist inclinations within Afghanistan. The party claimed, “46 percent of respondents expressed support for partition of the country”, which apparently is more than the reported 44 percent in favour of a federal system in Afghanistan.
The National Congress Party, led by Latif Pedram, is one of the few political parties in Afghanistan that seeks the establishment of a federal political system in the country. Pedram has repeatedly said that the centralised structure is the main problem of the Afghan people which could be addressed by establishing a "federal republic system".
He additionally emphasised that in the absence of establishing a federal republic, he does not dismiss the prospect of “partition” of Afghanistan.
The survey data has not been made available on the party's website for evaluation and confirmation by independent researchers.
On October 23, the National Congress Party announced that it had launched an online survey titled "Right to Self-Determination", regarding the preferred future political system for Afghanistan. In the poll, the participants were asked to choose "Islamic Emirate", "Presidential Republic", "Federal Republic" or “Partition” as their choice for the future of Afghanistan.
As per the party's report, over 103,000 individuals from over 71 countries took part in the survey. Approximately 81% of respondents are Farsi speakers, while around 7% of participants are Pashto speakers.
The gender breakdown of respondents included 11% women and 89% men, and most respondents were between the ages of 25 and 35.
The Islamic Emirate system achieved the least support among the four options presented, according to the collected statistics.
Only 4.2 percent of the respondents voted for an Islamic Emirate. Respectively, 5.5 percent wanted a presidential republic system.
The National Congress Party on Sunday published the results of the survey and told Afghanistan International that these results show the people's desire for "fundamental and serious change” in Afghanistan.