05 October 2004	Tuesday	19 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 4: The Afghans go to polls in about a week from now, but many refugees are not familiar with the 18 candidates running for the office of the president of Afghanistan.

Only President Hamid Karzai enjoys some support among the Peshawar-based Afghans, who are going to cast their votes in the elections to be held on Oct 9. Visits to refugees camps and registration centres established by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), revealed that the most of the refugees are determined to stay away from the election, owing to their lack of knowledge about the poll process.

This holds true for both male and females. But the men have an edge over their women, because they have seen several elections in Pakistan. "I came to know about the elections today, but still do not know, what the elections are," questioned Noor Khan, a 20-year- old refugee, who has born in Peshawar.

He said he was the supporter of Hamid Karzai, because he was not aware of the names of the other contestants. A group of Afghan youngsters told this correspondent that they knew that elections would make no difference in their war- shattered country, but still they wanted to get involved in the process.

"We do not know any other candidate except Hamid Karzai. He is the only ray of hope for the war-battered Afghans. Only he can restore the much-awaited peace and tranquillity back home in Afghanistan", said a 25-year-old, Baseera, who is all set to cast her first ballot in Katcha Garhi camp near here.

Another woman, Parveen Basheeri, who teaches at a local school, said that the women's motivation was more important for the election campaigners of all the presidential candidates, but she expressed concern over the poor campaign even on the part of Hamid Karzai, who she said was popular among the refugees living in Peshawar.

Ms Parveen, 32, said that most of the women despite having been registered by the IOM didn't know how to cast votes in the historical polls. She said that it was the responsibility of the people tasked with the election campaign to impart know-how to the people regarding the elections.

"We are trying our level best to educate the women on the election process. But the main responsibility rests with the men who had been appointed by president Karzai to run his election campaign in Pakistan," said Ms Shahla Ghaffar Khan, who is chief of the mission to motivate women to cast their votes in favour of Hamid Karzai.

The situation in posh areas, such as Hayatabad, University Town, Shaheen Town etc., is extremely bad, because the people seem less interested in polls. The scenario in camps is terribly bad, where the people say they were looking to find livelihoods and had no time for other things.

Ms Khan said that the women were also facing problems in getting registered because their husbands or male family's elders felt shame to let their women come out for casting votes.

Another Afghan woman said that they had been visiting schools to mobilize Afghan teachers and girls in posh Afghan localities, but said that those scattered in sprawling refugee camps. She said that she knew Karzai, because he is the present ruler of her country and therefore wanted to campaign for him.