 Afghanistan on Saturday launched a month-long voter registration drive for the countryâs first post-conflict parliamentary polls as the UN voiced concerns about escalating violence in the countryâs south. | Trust the UN to find the negative and the MSM to report it. |
The UN-backed Afghan electoral commission aims to register some two million voters by July 21 who were not old enough for Octoberâs presidential elections, have not previously registered, have lost their registration cards, or moved. âWe expect to register one or two million Afghans across the country,â for parliamentary and provincial council elections on September 18, Richard Atwood, chief of operations at the Joint Electoral Management Body told AFP. UN Secretary General Kofi Annanâs special envoy to Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, said Saturday there had been a ânegative evolutionâ of the nationâs security over the last three months. âThe country is confronted with an escalation of both the number and gravity of incidents that affect several provinces,â he said, citing several attacks and targeted killings in the last few weeks. âThe situation is especially worrying in the southern provinces ... and in Pashtun regions bordering with Pakistan,â he added. | And that's changed, ... how? |
Atwood said that despite security concerns in the south polling was going ahead and violence would not undermine the election for the countryâs first post-conflict legislature. âSecurity is a concern but it will not stop registration, and it will not stop polling, he added. A number of registration sites in southern Zabul province which was the scene of this weekâs lethal battle have not yet opened and one site in the southeastern Taleban hotbed of Paktika has yet to open, Atwood said. However, the rest of the countryâs 485 voter registration centers have thrown open their doors, he added. |