Hundreds of people intend to contest upcoming polls

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Hundreds of people are intending to flex their muscles in the upcoming parliamentary election as the voter registration process is underway across the country.

According to a survey conducted by Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), an estimated 150 persons are planning to try their luck in the parliamentary election in Kabul.

In Kabul, around 200,000 people have been registered as voters sine the voter registration process was started nearly two weeks ago. But the turnout of voters registration was quite low in some other provinces and the potential aspirants may not be able to fulfill the requirement of having the support of 1000 voters.

In Wardak province, around 600 people registered their names to vote but more than 35 people intend to contest the poll. The low turnout in the voter registration in Wardak shows that none of the candidates would be able to fulfill the requirement of 1000 voters as seconders.

Similarly, the number of potential candidates for parliamentary elections in southeastern Paktika province reaches to 60 but only 1000 voters have so far been registered in the province.

In Herat province, tens of people intend to contest the parliamentary election but the turnout of voters registration is not as encouraging as needed.

The same is the situation in almost all the other provinces and it is estimated that thousands of people would submit their nomination papers in the upcoming elections.

Election commissioner Rafiullah Bedar, however, said there were specific rules and regulations which would be fulfilled by a candidate to contest the polls. He said the registration of candidate would be started on May 26 and final list would be announced after assessing the nomination papers.

Deputy Operation director of Election Commission hoped that the turnout at voters registration centre would improve in the days to come with the launch of public awareness programs.

The commission is also mulling over extending the voter registration process for three to seven weeks.

So far, around 1.4 million people have been registered as voters in the voter registration process.