Nearly two months before sched-uled elections, the Afghan electoral commission announced yesterday that it will close all registration sites across the country by today. The decision was announced by Aykut Tavsel, a spokesman for the Joint Electoral Management Body.
The agency, which started reg-istering Afghans last December, has registered nearly 10 million of the 10.5 million eligible to vote.
"The number might reach the total estimated 10.5 million before it [registration] is officially closed" today, Tavsel said, adding that forty-one percent of registrants are women.
He also said some people had requested continued registration in regions where security concerns had been an issue.
David Avery, the agency's operations chief, said in a statement that the voter registration had been successful.
"Our goal was to allow all of the Afghan people the possibility of registering to vote and [to] take part in the election," Avery said. "We are pretty happy. We think it's been a success."
POPULAR SUPPORT
The south-central region of Afghanistan is still a hot spot, with almost daily Taliban attacks on coalition forces. Avery said the attacks were a concern to the registration agency.
"When we started this operation we expected that there would be three provinces which would pose a difficulty, and may in fact not be accessible, that was Zabul, Paktika and Uruzgon," Avery said.
"In fact we registered people in all of those (provinces), and we have made it to almost every district in the country, and there were many that we thought would not be possible," he said.
The ousted members of the former Taliban regime who have vowed to interrupt the election process have so far killed 13 election workers and injured dozens of others. They have also killed at least 16 men who were carrying voting cards.
Last week, the agency published the final list of candidates, which showed that 17 candi-dates, including one woman, are due to run against President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai has governed since the fall of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001 and remains the favorite in the election race.
Those opposing him will include female pediatrician Masuda Jalal and General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who hopes to garner the votes of Uzbek Afghans.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were originally to take place in June but were postponed due to logistical and security concerns. A new parliament will be now be chosen in April 2005.
FACTIONAL CLASHES
Meanwhile, eight militiamen, including two commanders, were killed yesterday when fighting erupted between two rival warlords over control of a district in western Afghanistan, the leader of one of the factions said.
Faction commander Amanullah Khan said his forces had clashed with those loyal to Western Herat province Governor Ismail Khan in Shindand district.
They eventually drove out the governor's men, he said. "Fighting started at two in the morning and went on until four."
"Eight people were killed, including Herat garrison commander Saifullah and General Zakim Khan of the border brigade, who supported Ismail Khan," he said.
He said his forces had taken control of Shindand and pushed Ismail Khan's fighters into a neighboring district.
Shindand, some 660km west of Kabul, has been controlled both by forces loyal to Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik, and Amanullah Khan, a Pashtun. The factions have clashed often in the past two years.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS