KABUL - Noor Mohammad Noor, the spokesman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), on Wednesday announced that so far, the Commission has distributed over one million voter cards to the residents across the country. Mr. Noor further added that the deadline for the voters' registration process has been extended by 45 days, in an effort to allow more people register themselves and elect their next President.
In addition to the opening of more registration centers and keeping existing centers open longer, part of the IEC's efforts to make the process more inclusive will be the deploying of a mobile registration team. The team is expected to be sent out on September 28 and visit some of the most remote communities in Afghanistan.
As low female turn-out still remains a serious concern for the Commission, the mobile registration team will give a special focus to encouraging and facilitating the registration of women. Part of the team's responsibilities will therefore be a voting rights and electoral process awareness campaign.
As the nomination filing process enters its 10th day, only one candidate has filed nomination for Presidency. Now, 11 days remain for the nomination process to come to a close. According to the IEC, 62 people, including three women have received the "information package" for the Presidential election, and Bismillah Sher of the Wefaq Millie Party (WMP) has filed nomination for Presidency.
Presidential candidates have until October 6 to submit their names and meet the considerable requirements set for the upcoming elections. The new standards eligible candidates are expected to meet include depositing a fee of 1 million Afghanis ($18,000) and providing signatures and voter ID numbers of 100,000 supporters from an assortment of provinces around the country.
Meanwhile, Mr. Noor pointed out that according to the new Election Law, the campaigning timeframe for the Presidential election has been reduced from four months to two months. He said that the electoral campaign for Presidency will begin on January 2nd, 2014 and continue until March 5th, 2014.
"Campaigning for the Presidential election will begin from January 2nd, 2014 and continue until March 5th, 2014. According to the new law, the timeframe for campaigning has been reduced from four months to two months. Also, for the Provincial Councils' election the timeframe has been reduced to one month," said Mr. Noor.
The next spring's election is scheduled for April 5th, 2014, and preparations are in high gear. With only 11 days left to register, news about who is going to contest the elections will likely be breaking over the course of the next couple of weeks. (Tolo News)