Afghanistan launches leaflet drop to boost voter registrations as attacks spread fear

Afghanistan is dropping leaflets from planes to boost the voter registrations for legislative elections, amid concerns that a poor turnout would undermine the polls’ credibility.

Attacks on voter registration centres across the war-torn country, including a suicide bomb in Kabul a week ago, have deterred many Afghans from registering to vote in the October 20 ballot.

More than 650,000 adults had signed up by Saturday, a fortnight after the two-month process began, the Independent Election Commission said.

The commission, which is overseeing preparations for the long-delayed parliamentary and council votes, hopes to register 14 million adults at more than 7,000 polling centres.

But if the current trend continues, fewer than three million people will have registered by the mid-June deadline.

“We are concerned about the low turnout,” commission spokesman Shafi Jalali said yesterday.

Mr Jalali said the process might be extended to increase numbers.

Authorities have sent planes to drop leaflets in some provinces to raise awareness of the elections, which are seen as a test run for next year’s presidential poll. A radio and television campaign is also under way and civil servants have been given a day off to sign up.

The commission has placed many of the voter-registration centres inside schools and mosques, triggering fears that pupils and worshippers could be at risk.

Last Sunday’s suicide attack outside a voter registration centre in a Shiite-populated area of Kabul killed 60 people and wounded 129. It was very close to several schools.

Since then, thousands of parents in Shiite neighbourhoods of the city have pulled their children out of schools with registration centres.

Hundreds dropped out at a high school of 7,000 pupils after the attack, a principal said.

“The parents are coming to demand that we remove the registration site,” she said. “We have submitted their request to the education department.”

A Ministry of Education spokesman said it was concerned about security in schools but had not received any complaint from parents or reports of falling attendance.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad yesterday, an explosion about 100 metres from a mosque being used to register voters wounded five civilians, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani said.