The Afghan government began voter registration Monday ahead of a presidential election slated for autumn 2009 despite the country's worsening security situation as it battles a Taliban-led insurgency.
The Independent Election Commission said it started the first phase of the registration process in 14 central and eastern provinces, adding that it would take up to four months to cover the country and would cost more than 100 million dollars provided by donor countries.
Nearly 13 million voters registered for the first time four years ago for democratic elections after 30 years of political turmoil. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2004 and 2005.
Election Commission officials said they expected about 8 million people would register in the new campaign as those already with voting cards were not required to re-register.
"This process is only for those people who have lost their old voting cards or the refugees who have recently returned to the country as well as those who have turned 18 years old after the last election," Zakaria Barekzai, commission spokesman, said.
Although the poll is scheduled for next year, many Afghan analysts said they fear the voting might be delayed because of mounting insecurity caused by Taliban militants and local warlords who still hold sway in rural areas.
The Taliban, which lost power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion, have staged a bloody insurgency to oust the Western-backed Afghan government and expel about 70,000 international forces from the country.
Their strongholds had been mainly in southern and eastern regions of the country, but the militants have now infiltrated into areas bordering Kabul and this year started to penetrate into relatively peaceful northern and western provinces.
"We warn the people not to register and not to waste their time, because whoever the US wants, he will become the president," Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi, Taliban spokesman, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by phone from an undisclosed location.
"More than half of the country is in our hands and we will not let it (the election) happen," he said.
Officials also said they expected a lower turnout for the next poll as people were disillusioned by lack of aide pledged by the international community and the widespread corruption by government officials.
Abdul Jabar Taqwa, governor of the northern province of Parwan, said that lack of aide pledged by the international community after the formation of the democratic government, has eroded public support for the central government.
"We know that administrative corruption has distanced the people from their government," Taqwa told a gathering, which marked the commencement registration, in Charikar, the provincial capital of Parwan on Monday.
But he urged the people to register and vote in the next poll, saying "if you want to improve your lives then you must register and vote."
Speaking at the same gathering, Mohammad Ayoub Asil, deputy director for election commission, also urged the people to register and said, "Where there is no election, there is no democracy either."
"This government was not able to bring peace and create employment for the people, so I have come to register and vote for a better government," Ahmad Munir, 21, a resident of Charikar city, who was standing in a queue to register his name, told dpa.
"We are all unhappy with the current president and his government, we want a change," Gholam Raouf, 41, another resident of Parwan province said.
With already more than 4,000 people killed in Taliban-led violence so far this year, officials fear that an election would be a challenging task for the Afghan government and its Western allies to organize.
President Hamid Karzai, who has held his post since the fall of the Taliban regime, hinted recently that he intended to run for another term.
Other powerful figures considered likely to run include Mohammad Younus Qanooni, speaker of the lower house of parliament; Burhanuddin Rabani, former mujahedin president; and Ali Ahmad Jalali, former interior minister.
