More than 800 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Force marched through Herat City on Tuesday, showing their preparedness for ensuring the safety of the October 20 parliamentary elections.

The campaign for the elections has already started countrywide.

According to the Ministry of Interior, 54,776 members of the Afghan National Security and Defense Force will be deployed for security of 5,100 polling centers five days ahead of the elections.

The ministry said there will be 9,540 reserved forces.

There is no serious security threat against the electoral process in the west zone, a senior security official said who addressed his forces during the military parade.

“We conducted the parade to ensure that people can freely go to the polls and meanwhile the forces will know their places where they will be deployed,” said Gen. Noorullah Qadiri, the 207 Zafar Corps Commander.

The forces will be deployed to all provinces in the west of Afghanistan, Qadiri said.

“This parade will not be the first one; there will be more parades in three other provinces including Ghor, Farah and Badghis,” said Mohammad Juma Adil, Commander of 606 Zone of Police in the province.

“Our top priority is the electoral process and I hope that security forces will be able to ensure a safe environment for the elections,” said Herat Governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi.

Reports indicate that security threats are on the rise in some parts of the west zone including Farah and Badghis provinces. However, the 207 Zafar Corps commander said they continue their efforts to remove all security threats in the west zone.