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. 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.
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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).
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" | Logo
! Name
! Leader
! Position
! Ideology
! Wolesi Jirga seats
! Meshrano Jirga seats
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Watan Party of Afghanistan<br />'<br /><br />'
| Mir Afghan Bawary
| Centre-left
| Social Democracy<br />Secularism<br />Gender Equality
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:#"|
| N/A
| National Enlightenment Consensus Party of Afghanistan
| N/A
| N/A
| Socialism<br />Secularism<br />Gender Equality
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| National United Party of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Bahadur Ayubi
| Left-Wing
| Socialism<br />Secularism<br />Gender Equality
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| Solidarity Party of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Dawood Razmak
| Left-wing
| Democratic Socialism<br />Secularism<br />Anti-Imperialism<br />Socialist Feminism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| Afghan Peace Movement
| N/A
| N/A
| Socialism<br />Secularism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin<br />'<br />'
| Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
| Right-wing
| Islamism<br />Pashtun Interests<br />Anti-Salafi
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Hezb-i Islami Khalis<br />'<br />'
| Din Mohammad
| N/A
| Tribal Autonomy<br />Tribalism<br />Pashtunwali<br />Khogyani tribe interests
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| Republican Party of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Adelah Bahram Nezami
| Third Way
| Legal Egalitarianism<br>Liberal Feminism<br>Republicanism<br>Secular Liberalism<br>Secular Humanism<br>Social Liberalism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Jamiat-e-Islami (Afghanistan)<br />'<br />'
| Salahuddin Rabbani
| Centre
| Islamism<br />Afghan nationalism<br />Islamic democracy<br />Republicanism<br />Communitarism<br />Moderate Progressivism<br />Afghan Tajik interests<br />Anti-Communism<br />Anti-Sovietism<br />Anti-Islamic extremism<br />Anti-Taliban
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| Islamic Movement of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Sayed Mohammad Ali Jawid
| N/A
| Islamism<br />Religious Fundamentalism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| Afghan Mellat Party<br />'<br />'
| Stanagul Sherzad
| N/A
| Social democracy<br />Pashtun Nationalism<br />Anti-Communism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Hezbe Wahdat<br />'<br />'
| Karim Khalili (alledged)
| N/A
| Traditionalism<br />Islamism<br />Hazara Minority Rights<br />Shia Islamism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf
| Right-wing
| Islamism<br />Wahhabism<br />Conservatism<br />Pashtun and Tajik Interests<br />Anti-Shi'ism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| Abdul Rashid Dostum
| Centre
| Islamic Liberalism<br />Islamic Socialism<br />Minority Rights<br />Uzbek and Turkmen Interests<br />Secularism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| National Rescue Front (Afghanistan)
| N/A
| N/A
| Traditionalism<br />Islamism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| Afghan Liberal Party
| N/A
| N/A
| Secularism<br />Liberalism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| N/A
| Moderation Party of Afghanistan
| N/A
| style="text-align:center" | N/A
| Afghan Nationalism<br />Democracy<br />Moderatism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| Logo
| Afghanistan Liberation Organization<br />'<br />'
| Faiz Ahmad
| Far-left
| Communism<br />Marxism–Leninism<br />Maoism<br />Anti-revisionism
|
|
|-
| style="background-color:"|
| 110px
| Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan<br />'<br />'
| N/A
| Far-left
| Communism<br />Marxism–Leninism–Maoism<br />Anti-Imperialism
|
|
|-
|}
Minor parties under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" | Logo
! Name
! Leader
! Position
! Ideology