KABUL (Pajhwok): With delay in supply of materials affecting the voter registration drive, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday hoped the process would get in full swing in days to come.
Earlier, the IEC has announced launching a 20-day voter registration process for the Sept 28 presidential election.
Habib Rahman Nang, IEC secretary, told a press conference here today the voter registration would continue until June 29.
He added the registration was launched to document eligible voters who had not registered before, had reached the legal age recently or who had not attached stickers to their ID cards.
According to Nang, voters will be listed at 705 registration centres -- 247 in southern Ghazni and the rest in other provinces.
Nang, in the presence of election watchdog representatives, political parties and civil society, said due to some issues, the process of voter registration could not be launched on May 29 nationwide.
He said the Ministry of Education did not help in identifying polling stations in a particular area while security forces failed to supply important materials to polling sites, thus the process suffered delay in most of the districts.
He said since the launch of the registration process, 15,000 people had registered as voters which included 9,358 men, 4,500 women and 113 Kochis.
Nang said political parties, civil society groups and media should spread awareness among people regarding registering as voters.
IEC head Hawa Alam Nuristani stressed on the conduct of free and fair polls and asked media, election watchdogs and civil society organisations to support IEC efforts in spreading awareness among people.
Mohammad Naeem Ayubzada, head of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan(TEFA), urged the IEC to have a complete list of voters and avoid the use of imaginary facts and figures.
He recalled during previous elections, the number of voters was nine to 10 million while less than five million people cast their votes. He stressed the commission should arrange exact voter lists in order to ensure transparency.
Abdul Sattar Khawasi, representative of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan, termed the process of voter registration as a futile exercise and demanded the use of biometric tools to prevent rigging and fraud.
Nh/ma

 

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