Afghans Brave Poor Security To Register Vote

Women made up 38 percent of those who registered to vote.

More than 4 million Afghans have registered to vote in the Aug. 20 presidential election, double the number expected, an official said on Tuesday, but poor security in some areas prevented others from taking part.

The final phase of voter registration ended last week, with hundreds of thousands of people turning up at district centres to register, despite security concerns, in four southern provinces, where the insurgency is strongest.

"I am very happy. Our plan was to register 2 million people and this would have been a success," Zekria Barakzai, deputy chief electoral officer for the Independent Election Commission, said.

Women made up 38 percent of those who registered to vote.

But in 10 districts, mainly across the south of the country, a lack of government presence and poor security prevented election officials from entering, Barakzai said.

Half of those districts were in southern Helmand province, the centre of Afghanistan's $3 billion illicit drugs trade where several thousand mainly British and Afghan soldiers are locked in daily battles with Taliban militants.

Two other districts were in neighbouring Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban, one in Ghazni and one in Wardak province, just south of Kabul, and where some 3,000 new U.S. troops have recently deployed.

"We are negotiating with tribal leaders and security forces on ways of registering people in these districts. If, on the election date, these districts are secure, then we may be able to let people register and vote on the same day," Barakzai said.

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of 17,000 extra U.S. troops this year to add to the nearly 70,000 military personnel already in Afghanistan. Commanders have also requested that NATO allies send temporary reinforcements to help provide security for the election.

While there were no major security incidents, insurgents attacked a voter registration centre in Kandahar province last week, killing one policeman and wounding another, the U.N. agency assisting in the elections said.

The new round of registration was for voters who had either lost their polling cards from the last presidential election in 2004 or had come of age since then. Some 12.5 million Afghans were registered to vote in 2004.

President Hamid Karzai met key power brokers and lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss a looming constitutional crisis. The constitution says elections must be held by May 21 when his government looses its legitimacy, but the electoral law says the presidential term is five years, meaning Karzai should remain in power until either October, five years after he was elected, or December, five years after he took the oath of office.

To remain in office beyond May, Karzai will have to make concessions to opposition groups, diplomats say. The president will announce his decision soon, his office said.