Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Reluctance in Registration a Challenge for Election: Envoy

Reluctance in Registration a Challenge for Election: Envoy

KABUL - Canadian ambassador to Kabul, Francois Rivest, in an interview with TOLOnews said people’s reluctance in the registration process is a challenge for the upcoming elections.
The voter registration process was launched 22 days ago and according to the election commission, over one million voters have registered their names so far.
Rivest said if less people go to voter registration centers to register, it definitely will be a challenge.
“It’s been a challenge and we know that the government is very focused on this, the international community is supporting the government providing advice in this respect. We know that the IEC is very focused on this issue and is looking at steps to improve the level of registration,” said Rivest.
While the institutions overseeing the election process have been blasting the IEC over poor management, Rivest said they want a transparent election to be held in Afghanistan and the international community supports this.
“It is our hope. A lot of effort has been made by the government of Afghanistan and by the IEC with the support of the international community for the election to take place this year,” Rivest added.
“Both people and government are concerned that people’s interests have decreased in registering their names and too, the election commission has made registration conditions harder,” Abdullah Qaraloq, a senator said.
According to IEC statistics, so far over one million voters have registered their names across the country and daily about 60,000 to 70,000 voters register.
IEC figures show Kabul and Kandahar are at the top of the list in terms of having a high number of people referring to the registration centers, while Nuristan and Wardak provinces are at the bottom of the list.
According to IEC, from the total number of registered voters, over 292,900 of them are women and more than 25,000 of them are nomad people.

The voter registration process was launched on April 14 in the cities and will continue for another week. (Tolo news)