06 October 2004	Wednesday	20 Shaban 1425

KOHAT, Oct 5: About 97 per cent of Afghan refugees, who have registered themselves as voters for the Oct 9 presidential elections, want to vote for the incumbent president Hamid Karzai, according to a survey.

Polling agents of the remaining 17 candidates took little interest in the voter registration campaign, showed the survey conducted by the officials of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees and International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Unexpectedly, a large number of conservative Afghan women came out to register. In Kohat, Hangu and Kurram Agency, only 50,678 refugees were registered. The total population of refugees in the region is stated to be 238,068. Most of the Afghans kept away from the process owing to threats by the Taliban and their supporters of former Afghan prime minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar, sources said.

The regional administrator for refugees, Ibraheem Khattak, told Dawn that after consulting elders and the security staff, all Afghans settled in Kohat and Hangu districts would be restricted to their camps on Oct 9 to avoid a law and order situation.

In Kurram Agency, 31,228 refugees were registered, in Kohat 24,059, Hangu 26,619, Bannu 3,656 and Dera Ismail Khan 3,004. There are a total of 21,000 women voters, the sources said.

The chief representative of Hamid Karzai in Kohat said the performance of the IOM staff was not up to the mark as they did not take into confidence the local Afghan elders or the representatives of the presidential candidates while making arrangements for registration.