The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC) on Thursday said it is working to finalize the process of recruiting at least 400 employees to work on the voter registration database. 

The IEC’s commissioner Maazullah Dawlati meanwhile said that voter registration turnout is still slow.  

He said the commission would like to register 12 to 15 million people for the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections. 

However, the turnout since Saturday indicates that the IEC could face challenges to achieve this target.  

According to IEC statistics, over the past five days, 113,924 people registered , of which 37,000 of them were women. 

“The statistics which the commission receives indicates that we will not reach our target that we have set, but we have launched a major awareness campaign and hope that the numbers increase in the coming days,” said Dawlati. 

On the issue of a database he said: “We need to hire 400 people for our database section, to work in two shifts and register the statistics, information and the books, the process of hiring 200 employees will be finalized by next week.” 

“The system is not transparent, they (IEC) have not carried out an awareness campaign, because of that, not many people are going to the voter registration centers,” said former IEC chief Fazel Ahmad Manavi. 

Reports meanwhile say that the officials at voter registration centers are reluctant to provide the media with the number of people who have registered – an issue that has sparked major concerns among the election monitoring groups. 

Sources from the IEC, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that only between 10 and 60 people register at each center every day. But the IEC has said that the commission is considering all options in terms of carrying out an awareness campaign. 

“I came to register, to participate in the elections, and determine a better future for my children,” said one Kabul resident, Zahira. 

The voter registration process will be broken up into three phases. 

In the first phase, those eligible to vote can register at IEC offices in provincial centers from April 14 to May 12. 

In the second phase, which starts from May 15 and continues to May 28, the process will be carried out in the districts.

In the third phase, which starts from May 28 to June 22, the voter process will be carried out in remote regions of the country.  

The IEC and government have meanwhile identified 7,300 polling centers across the country, however, nearly 1,000 of these centers are located in areas out of government’s control.