02 October 2004	Saturday	16 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 1: Registration of Afghan refugees for the Oct 9 presidential elections in Afghanistan received a lukewarm response with refugees showing little interest in the whole process.

On the first day of the three-day process, registration centres received fewer refugees in camps and urban areas than expected to get registration cards for the polls in the war-torn country.

Contrary to the expectations, turnout of the Afghans seeking to register for voting was low at various stations till noon. Opponents of the Afghan government, including supporters of the Taliban and former prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar, have been issuing pamphlets warning the refugees against registration.

During a visit to the sprawling Kacha Garhi refugee camp near Peshawar, which houses about 75,000 registered DPs, this correspondent observed a lukewarm response of the expected voters.

At a centre, only 80 women were registered till 12 noon, said a registration officer. Although the number of Pukhtun refugees was more than the Dari speakers here, but the participation of the latter was more in the registration process as compared to Pashto speakers.

An interesting aspect of the exercise was that majority of those seeking to register for voting were below the age of 18 who were issued registration cards by the IOM staff.

However, the head of the Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), Haji Zahir Khan Jabarkhel, when approached, denied that under-age refugees had been granted registration cards.

"These boys are not under-aged," Jabbarkhel tried to offer an explanation, adding: "It is because of malnutrition that they appear to be under-age."

He was satisfied with the security arrangements in and outside the centres, claiming that there was great enthusiasm among the refugees to register themselves for the country's first ever presidential elections.

In Pakistan, the IOM is seeking to register about 800,000 refugees for voting in three days, which critics say was a task impossible.

The registration process was started at about 8am and continued till 4pm without any interruption. But hundreds of thousands of Afghans living in the troubled North and South Waziristan agencies, hilly Chitral district in the NWFP and in scattered parts of Punjab would not to take part in the process due to the law and order situation in the tribal agencies and a lack of access to the refugee hosting areas in Chitral and Punjab.

About 60,000 registered refugees are living in the North, South Waziristan agencies and Chitral district who would not vote, according to the official sources.

The IOM, which is conducting the process under the auspices of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body, has set up total 1,016 registration centres refugees in Pakistan.

In Peshawar, which has the largest refugee concentration, total 252 registration centres have been set up in camps and in the city.

Representatives of the UN and Afghan election body visited various registration centres in Jalozai camp near Peshawar and witnessed the process. The team, officials said, expressed satisfaction over the arrangements and the ongoing activities.

The NWFP home department has deployed 49 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary at various registration centres in the province, while in tribal areas, the Frontier Corps would provide security cover to complete the process peacefully.

The IOM representatives recently estimated that from 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans over the age of 18 were likely to get registration cards and thus would be allowed to vote for one of the 18 candidates, including incumbent President Hamid Karzai, in the polls.

Supporters of President Karzai, his rival Yonus Qanooni and other candidates have set up election offices in camps and the city and displayed posters to gain support of the voters.

About 800 refugee families have announced boycotting the registration process in two camps in the Hangu district, our correspondent adds. Elders of the so-called Shoora of the Kotki camp blamed that the IOM had authorised a local Afghan who had recruited his relatives for the registration process.

In a press release issued here on Friday, the Shoora members said majority of the inhabitants of the camps would not visit the registration centres unless the IOM removed the relevant staff.