List of political parties in Afghanistan

Political parties are banned in Afghanistan under the current Taliban government. Previously, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had a multi-party system in development with numerous political parties, in which no one party often had a chance of gaining power alone, and parties had to work with each other to form coalition governments. No political party was permitted to exist that advocated anything deemed to go against Islamic morality.

The Taliban movement took over the government by force in 2021, and has since ruled the country unopposed. In September 2022, Acting Deputy Minister of Justice Maulvi Abdul Karim stated that there is "no need" for political parties to be active. ^[1] On 16 August 2023, the Taliban government formally banned all political parties in Afghanistan in a decree announced by Acting Justice Minister Abdul Hakim Haqqani, because according to them, there is no concept of political party in the Sharia and the political parties do not serve Afghanistan's interests. ^[2]

Major parties under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

All parties are now banned; the following is a list of major parties during the rule of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The law governing the formation of political parties was promulgated in 2009, and required parties to have at least 10,000 members, (previously they had only needed 700 members). ^[3]

Logo	Name	Leader	Position	Ideology [4]	Wolesi Jirga seats	Meshrano Jirga seats
	Watan Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e Watan-e Afganestan Dari: حزب وطن افغانستان	Mir Afghan Bawary	Centre-left	Social Democracy Secularism Gender Equality	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Enlightenment Consensus Party of Afghanistan	N/A	N/A	Socialism Secularism Gender Equality	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	National United Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e Muttahed-e Melli-ye Afghanistan Dari: حزب متحد ملی افغانستان	Bahadur Ayubi	N/A	Socialism Secularism Gender Equality	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	Solidarity Party of Afghanistan Hambastagi-ye Afghanistan Dari: حزب همبستگی افغانستان	Dawood Razmak	Left-wing	Democratic Socialism Secularism Anti-Imperialism Feminism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Afghan Peace Movement	N/A	N/A	Socialism Secularism	0 / 250	0 / 102
	Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin Dari: حزب اسلامی گلبدین	Gulbuddin Hekmatyar	Right-wing	Islamism Pashtun Interests Anti-Salafi	0 / 250	0 / 102
	Hezb-i Islami Khalis Pashto: حزب اسلامی خالص	Din Mohammad	N/A	Tribal Autonomy Tribalism Pashtunwali Khogyani tribe interests	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Republican Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e Jomhorikhahan-e Afghanistan Persian: حزب جمهوریخواهان افغانستان	Adelah Bahram Nezami	N/A	Republicanism	0 / 250	0 / 102
	Jamiat-e-Islami (Afghanistan) Persian: جمعیت اسلامی افغانستان	Salahuddin Rabbani	Centre	Islamism Afghan nationalism Islamic democracy Republicanism Communitarism Moderate Progressivism Afghan Tajik interests Anti-Communism Anti-Sovietism Anti-Islamic extremism Anti-Taliban	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Islamic Movement of Afghanistan Harakat-e Islami-yi Afghanistan Dari: حرکت اسلامی افغانستان	Sayed Mohammad Ali Jawid	N/A	Islamism Religious Fundamentalism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Afghan Mellat Party Afğān Mellat Gund Pashto: افغان ټولنپال ولسواکیز ګوند	Stanagul Sherzad	N/A	Social democracy Pashtun Nationalism Anti-Communism	0 / 250	0 / 102
	Hezbe Wahdat Dari: حزب وحدت	Karim Khalili (alledged)	N/A	Traditionalism Islamism Hazara Minority Rights Shia Islamism	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan Tanzim-e Da'wat-e Islami-ye Afghanistan Pashto: د اسلامي دعوت تنظيم	Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf	Right-wing	Islamism Wahhabism Conservatism Pashtun and Tajik Interests Anti-Shi'ism	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan Junbish-i-Milli Islami Afghanistan) Dari: جنبش ملی اسلامی افغانستان	Abdul Rashid Dostum	Centre	Islamic Liberalism Islamic Socialism Minority Rights Uzbek and Turkmen Interests Secularism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Rescue Front (Afghanistan)	N/A	N/A	Traditionalism Islamism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Afghan Liberal Party	N/A	N/A	Secularism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Moderation Party of Afghanistan	N/A	N/A	Afghan Nationalism Democracy	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	Afghanistan Liberation Organization Sāzmān-e Rehāyī-ye Āfġānistān) Dari: سازمان رهایی افغانستان	Faiz Ahmad	Far-left	Communism Marxism–Leninism Maoism Anti-revisionism	0 / 250	0 / 102
	Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan Hizb-i Komunist (Ma'uist) Afğānistān Dari: حزب کمونیست (مائوئیست) افغانستان	N/A	Far-left	Communism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Anti-Imperialism	0 / 250	0 / 102

Minor parties under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Logo	Name	Leader	Position	Ideology [4]	Wolesi Jirga seats	Meshrano Jirga seats
N/A	Welfare Party of Afghanistan Hizb-e-Refah e Afghanistan	N/A	N/A	Welfarism	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	Basej-e Milli	Amrullah Saleh	Centre	Afghan nationalism Atlanticism Moderate Islamism Democratism Decentralization Reformism Republicanism Anti-Taliban	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Democratic Party of Afghanistan	N/A	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Afghanistan Coherence and Mutation Party Majma e Haqiqat e Afghan	N/A	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Congress Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Congra-e-Mili Afghanistan	Abdul Latif Pedram	Centre	Secularism Liberalism Federalism Anti-Pashtun Nationalism	0 / 250	0 / 102
	National Islamic Front of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Mahaz-e-Milli Islami	Hamed Gailani	Right-wing	Afghan nationalism Pashtun Interests Royalism (formerly)	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Movement of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Nuhzhat-e-Mili Afghanistan	Ahmad Wali Massoud	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Nahzat-e-Hambastagee Mili	Sayed Ishaq Gailani	N/A	Monarchism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	National Sovereignty Party Hezb-e-Eqtedar-e-Mili	N/A	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
	National Solidarity Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Paiwand Mili	Sayed Mansur Naderi	N/A	Ismaili Shia interests	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	New Afghanistan Party Hezb-e Afghanistan Naween	Yunus Qanuni	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Pashtoons Social Democratic Party De Pashtano Tolaneez Wolaswaleez Gwand	Ali Khan Masood	N/A	Secularism Social democracy Left-Wing Pashtun nationalism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	People's Islamic Movement of Afghanistan Harakat-e Islami-yi	N/A	N/A	N/A	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	People's Party of Afghanistan Hizb-e Mardum-e Afghanistan	N/A	N/A	Populism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Progressive Democratic Party of Afghanistan	Mohammad Wali Arya	N/A	Social Democracy Democratic Socialism Secularism Labourism Left-Wing Nationaism Left-Wing Populism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Truth and Justice (Afghanistan) Hezb-e-Haq-wa-Edalat	Hanif Atmar	Centre	Multi-Ethnic Anti-Corruption Reformism Eurasianism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Unit Party	Shir Bazgar Abdul Haq Holomi	N/A	Islamism	0 / 250	0 / 102
N/A	Youth Solidarity Party of Afghanistan Hezb-e-Hambastagee Mili Jawanan	Doctor Fahim Tokhi	N/A	Youth Rights	0 / 250	0 / 102
Logo	Hezbollah Afghanistan	Ahmad Ali Ghordarwazi	N/A	Afghan Shiite Minority Rights Shia Islamism Qutbism Khomeinism	0 / 250	0 / 102

Former parties

The following is a list of historical parties disestablished prior to the founding of the Islamic Republic. Since the coup in 1973, Afghanistan has had many different political parties. These include Mohammed Daoud Khan's National Revolutionary Party of Afghanistan, the People's Democratic Party and the Democratic Watan Party of Afghanistan from the communist era, and the Northern Alliance that took power after the Fall of Kabul in April 1992, and ran the country until the Taliban's coup in 1996.

English name	Ideology	Logo	Notes
National Revolutionary Party of Afghanistan	Republicanism Secularism		Party founded by first president Mohammad Daoud Khan. Only legal party under his rule. Ceased to exist after a bloody military coup by the communists in 1978.
People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan	Communism Marxist-Leninism Secularism Left-Wing Nationalism		Communist party founded in 1965. Gained power in a 1978 coup, and was the dominant party of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1978 to 1990. Replaced by the Democratic Watan Party in 1990.
People's Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan (Feda'ian)	Socialism
Shola-e Javid	Communism Marxism–Leninism Maoism Anti-Revisionism		Banned in 1969 for opposing the Shah regime.

References

1. Ziaei, Hadia (4 September 2022). "Officials: Afghanistan Does Not Need a Constitution". TOLOnews . Retrieved 26 November 2022.
2. Gul, Ayaz (16 August 2023). "Taliban Ban Afghan Political Parties, Citing Sharia Violations". Voice of America. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
3. "Political Parties in Afghanistan," British Embassy in Kabul website (accessed 14 December 2012)
4. "Refworld | A House Divided? Analysing the 2005 Afghan Elections".

External links

• د افغانستان متحد ملت ګوند Afghanistan United Nation Party Website
• Licensed political parties (from the Afghanistan Ministry of Justice)
• Leftist parties of Afghanistan
• Crisis Group Asia Briefing N°39, Political Parties in Afghanistan, 5 June 2005
• Afghanistan Analysts Network series on Afghan political parties (begun in 2012)
• Political Parties in Afghanistan United States Institute of Peace

See also

• List of political parties by country