Candidates for president in Afghanistan's first free elections to be held Oct. 9 officially kicked off their campaigns yesterday.
The favorite among the 18 candidates is seen to be current President Hamid Karzai, who has been supported by the US since the US-led coalition's ouster of the radical Taliban regime in late 2001.
Campaigning for the presidential election is permitted to continue until three days before the voting.
Taliban remnants have vowed to step their up attacks in a bid to disrupt the election process, but no incidents were reported as official campaigning got under way yesterday.
UN officials reported more than 10.5 million Afghans have registered to vote, 41.3 percent of them women, exceeding earlier estimates for the number of people expected to vote.
Elections for president and parliament were originally set to be held in June, but were postponed due to organizational and security problems. The parliamentary election is scheduled to take place next April.
The October presidential vote will fall three years after the US unleashed a military assault to destroy the Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Voters will cast their ballots in 5,000 polling stations run by about 130,000 staff, covering areas so mountainous and remote they are only accessible by donkey or on foot and lack modern communication links.
Fundamentalist fighters loyal to the ousted Taliban rulers have vowed to disrupt the polls and have been waging a bombing and guerrilla campaign, killing more than 20 people including 12 election workers since May.
Despite the bloodshed, about 10.5 million people have registered to vote in the central Asian state's first-ever presidential elections -- more than the 9.8 eligible voters originally forecast by the UN.
While the figures reflect the enthusiasm of many Afghans about their chance to choose their own leader, the numbers also point to widespread fraud and multiple registration.
Voters have been subject to harassment and abuse, according to a report by the UN and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Some had their cards forcibly confiscated "by commanders, state authorities and private individuals," while others were abused for not obtaining voter registration cards, the report found.
It warned the elections would be affected by insecurity, lack of information and the control of regional warlords and militias.
Karzai has tried and largely failed to extend his control outside the capital Kabul and into medieval-era provinces which remain under the sway of regional warlords.
Rural communities are likely to vote according to the wishes of their tribal elders, or at the behest of military commanders with an intimidating record of violence.
Rising violence, especially in south and southeast Afghanistan, which are in the grips of a Taliban-led insurgency, will also hamper elections, analysts said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last Sunday on a US security firm in Kabul that killed three US citizens, three Nepalese and at least three others.
The European Union and the Organization for Security Coordination in Europe (OSCE) have both scaled back their election monitoring teams because of rife insecurity.
"If it is too dangerous for monitors to monitor, isn't it too dangerous for Afghans to vote?," asked Andrew Wilder, head of the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, voicing the views of many in the aid community that the polls are taking place prematurely.
NATO-led peacekeeping troops will boost their numbers by almost a third to 8,500 in time for the polls to secure Kabul and parts of the quieter northern provinces.
In the south, 18,500 US-led troops will provide some security for the ballot, but the bulk of the work will be done by officers from Afghanistan's fledgling police force.
In many cases security will be provided by men drawn from the forces of local warlords who have intimidated voters, warned Vikram Parekh, analyst with the International Crisis Group.
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