3,800 men, 750 women register as voters in Kandahar

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): At least 3,800 men and 750 women have registered to vote in the Sept 28 presidential polls in southern Kandahar province.

The voter registration process ended on Saturday in Kandahar, but insecurity and lack of awareness kept most of the people from taking part in the process.

Hashim Durrani, head of the provincial Independent Election Commission (IEC) office in Kandahar, in an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News said the voter registration process was launched on June 8 and wrapped up on June 30.

He said during this period 3,400 men and 750 women registered as voters in Kandahar City and 13 districts.

Information about voter registration has not arrived from four insecure districts (Ghorak, Maroof, Miansheen and Nesh) but 400 people might have registered in these four districts.

Employees and documents had been sent to these insecure districts through air and the outcome would take several days to arrive.

About 28 voter registration centers were set up in Kandahar, including 11 in Kandahar city.

The voter registration process was launched to document eligible voters who had not registered before or had reached the legal age recently or who had not attached stickers to their ID cards.

Abdullah Afghan, a resident of Maroof district, said one of the huge problems that marred the voter registration in their district was insecurity.

He only the district center was under government control and the rest of the district was ruled by rebels so he could not register as voter.

Mohammadullah, a resident of Mirwais Mena area of Kandahar City, said people were unaware about the voter registration process until the last day of the process.

But Hashim Khan Durrani rejected his claim and said they had worked a lot for public awareness.

He said they had launched workshops before the voter registration process in city and districts and published advertisements through local radios.

He acknowledged problems in insecure districts.

On Saturday night, eight employees of the IEC were killed in a deadly attack.

sa/ma

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