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Border district residents yet to get voter cards

author avatar
4 Nov 2013 - 12:32
author avatar
4 Nov 2013 - 12:32

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): Tribal elders from five districts of southern Kandahar province say a large numbers of people will be unable to participate in upcoming polls if they do not get voter cards as the registration campaign is set to come to an end on Nov. 10.

Lying near the Pakistan border, Maroof, many residents of Arghistan, Spin Boldak, Shorabak and Registan districts are yet to be issued with voter cards. 

During a meeting organised by the Department of Border and Tribal Affairs, tribal elder from Registan Aminullah said neither any mobile team had visited his town nor any resident had received a voter card. The district has a population of up to 30,000 families.

He said although Registan was considered one of the insecure districts, they would assist election officials in sending mobile teams to the area to distribute voter cards to locals.

A tribal elder from Maroof district, Haji Azizullah, said the government’s writ was confined only to its departments and security check-posts. Residents of Samighar, Lora, Spina Gara, Nava and other areas were yet to receive voter cards, he claimed.

Haji Rahmat from Spin Boldak district complained few people in his area had been issued with the cards and the registration team was yet to move out of the district centre. Women and elderly individuals could not go the district centre for registration.

Yet another tribal elder, Noor Mohammad from Zherai district, said 40 percent men of the town had registered, but almost all women were left out of the process. Hundreds people waited daily to get their cards from a mobile team operating in a shop, he said.

In response to tribal elder’s demands, a representative of the election commission said he would share their views with the IEC. He added only one voter registration centre was active in Kandahar City, the provincial capital. Two mobile teams are working in the provincial capital and four in districts.  

Border and Tribal Affairs Director Syed Jan Zyarkash acknowledged the problem, asking the IEC to send mobile teams to rural areas to issue voter cards to the people.

But IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said the provincial administration was yet to share the problems with them. The panel would strive to do whatever it could to resolve the issue, he promised.

According to the IEC local office, 110,000 people, including 23,000 women, have so far been issued with voter cards in Kandahar.

mm/mud

 

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