VOTER VOICES & DEMANDS

Security problems and lack of roads top the list of demands from many people in Khost. They want the next president to solve those key issues.
Located in the southern zone, the province has 12 official districts with another three unofficial districts. The province has nine representatives in the provincial council. Three of them are women and the rest are men.
The below report is based on comments of six residents - including two women, and one Kuchi - from three districts of the province.
An urban woman: We are fed up with Americans

As part of its election coverage plan, Pajhwok Afghan News is interviewing residents of all 34 provinces. Members of different age groups will be asked basic questions, such as whether they will participate in the August 20 presidential and provincial council polls, what they want the government to do and what their objections to official policies are.

Helmand people are not happy with the existing government, and they are going to participate in the upcoming elections.
About 800 families who have come from Helmand are living in tents west of Kabul near Qambar Square.
They have been living in Kabul for the past two years because of fighting in Helmand province, located in the volatile southern zone of the country.
The report below was prepared on the basis of interviews with four of the migrated people last week.

People in the central Ghazni province are fed up with unemployment and lawlessness. They're ready to vote, saying the government must take steps to ensure peace and provide jobs to them.
Located some 150 kilometres south of Kabul, Ghazni province consists of 18 districts. The province has 19 seats in the provincial council. Five of them are reserved for women.
A total of 93 candidates are in the field for the 19 seats. Nine of them are women.
Nawa is one of the 18 districts which was captured by Taliban a year ago and is still under their control.

A number of people in Paktika, like Afghans in other provinces, know only two or three of the 41 presidential candidates.
One reason is that some new faces have entered the election arena and their campaigns are mostly restricted to Kabul.
Located in the southeastern zone of the country, Paktika is a vast semi-mountainous province with an area of 19,500 square kilometers. It borders Ghazni, Paktia, Khost and Zabul provinces. Paktika also shares a 350-kilometre border with the Waziristan tribal region and Balochistan province of neighbouring Pakistan.

Although people in different districts of Nangarhar have their own demands from the future president, a few common problems emerge. Those included eradication of unemployment, security and end to administrative corruption.
The province, with 22 districts and a major border with Pakistan, has 19 members in the provincial council and 13 representatives in the Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of Parliament. The report below is based on comments of 10 people from five districts and the provincial capital of Jalalabad about their demands from the new president for Afghanistan.