BAMYAN CITY (Pajhwok): Awareness program regarding biometric voting for illiterate womenhas been launched in central Bamyan province for the September 28 presidential election, an official said on Thursday.
Aqila Yousufi, Independent Election Commission (IEC) gender section head for Bamyan, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the aim of the biometric awareness program was to encourage women to widely partake in the presidential election.
He said more than 5,000 women would be trained under the program at literacy centers on how to vote.
“During the Wolesi Jirga elections, many people did not turn up to vote because they did not know how to vote -- a problem for most of the women,” he added.
He added the awareness program implementation would enable people how to use their vote and would also prevent rigging.
Sadiq Farhank, literacy head at the education department, told Pajhwok the program was being run at all vital literacy institutions in capital and districts of the province.
He termed the program as important as it could encourage many women to participate in the upcoming presidential polls.
Khawar, a resident of Sukh Shahr village of Bamyan City, the provincial capital, told Pajhwok that after attending the program, now she knew how to cast her vote biometrically.
She said in the past women in Bamyan would face many problems while using their votes but the program would help them cast their votes through biometric process easily in future.
A number of other women held similar views in this regard.
pk/ma