Voter registration sites to close by mid August

Afghanistan's voter registration programme is set to finish throughout the country on 15 August, after successfully registering 90 percent of all eligible voters. "We have decided to close all voter registration sites throughout Afghanistan by mid August," Said Azam, a spokesman for the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), told IRIN in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, the day after the formal announcement was made. Registrations are likely to resume after the presidential election on 9 October in a bid to boost voter numbers for the national and local parliamentary polls scheduled for April 2005, according to the JEMB, which brings together the Afghan authorities and the United Nations. Since the registration effort began in December 2003, some 4,200 registration sites throughout the country have been established, registering some 8.6 million voters, of whom 3.5 million or 41 percent are women. Afghan election authorities estimate there are between 9.5 and 9.8 million potential voters in the Central Asian state. UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) spokesman David Singh described the figures as "very encouraging if not amazing. In how many countries in the world do you see 90 percent of the eligible voter population registering?" He noted, however, that voter registration remained low in several provinces, particularly in the south and southeast, where security was considered weaker. Only 9 percent of people have registered in some parts of the south, Singh added. Meanwhile, JEMB Chairman Zakim Shah called on all Afghan citizens to play an active part in the democratisation of their country by exercising their rights and registering as voters for the coming presidential election on 9 October 2004 and the parliamentary election scheduled for spring 2005. Despite the increase in the number of people registering, one concern was the unbalanced registration of female voters in some parts of the country. "In the south, women's registration is around 22 percent, compared to the national average of 41.3 percent," Azam highlighted. And while registration sites will largely be closed by 15 August, some sites in such districts will remain open to give anyone eligible to vote the opportunity to do so.