Kabul voters face tabloid-size ballot paper

More than 800 faces, 15 pages, one vote. Kabul voters will wrestle with newspaper-sized ballot papers on October 20, racing to find their candidate in a city under constant threat from militant attacks.

The huge number of parliamentary hopefuls vying to represent Kabul province, where around one-fifth of Afghanistan’s population lives, is the highest of anywhere in the country.

The candidates account for almost a third of the more than 2,500 people contesting long-delayed elections for Afghanistan’s lower house, or Wolesi Jirga.

Time consuming

Each voter can only choose one candidate, but finding them on Kabul’s giant ballot paper, which is roughly the size of a tabloid newspaper, could be time consuming.

It is hardly ideal when the risk of the Taliban or the Daesh group attacking polling centres is high.

To make the process easier and faster for voters, candidates are advertising their numerical position and ballot page number on campaign posters. The key numbers appear alongside symbols such as palm trees, lions or spectacles, used by candidates to help illiterate voters identify them.