KABUL: With three weeks left before Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections since the 1980s, the country is gearing up enthusiastically for a massive exercise in post-war democracy.

Nearly 6,000 candidates have nominated themselves for the Sept. 18 balloting, including warlords who fought the Soviets as well as ex-communists, former officials of the Islamic Taliban militia, human rights activists and an unprecedented 582 women.

The candidates’ photographs are plastered across the country, obliterating urban street signs and covering the mud walls of remote mountain villages. About 12.4 million people have registered to vote — 2 million more than did for the historic first presidential election last October.

Yet amid the exuberance, there is widespread unease over a variety of potential obstacles to a safe and successful election. Voters are to choose 249 representatives to the lower house of parliament as well as members of 34 provincial councils that will help select the upper house.

Insurgents loyal to the Taliban militia have reasserted themselves with deadly vigour after failing in their threats to derail the presidential voting. In the past several months, hundreds of Afghan and US soldiers, and a number of civilians, have been killed in bombings and ambushes apparently aimed at disrupting the elections.

To bolster security, the 9,000-member international force patrolling Afghanistan’s northern and western provinces has brought in an additional 2,000 troops. The US military, which represents the bulk of a coalition of about 20,000 operating in the south and east, is adding 700 service members.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a purported Taliban spokesman, recently told news services that the militia would not target polling stations on voting day. To date, however, the violence has continued unabated. Four election workers and three candidates have been killed.

Last week, the UN special representative to Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, decried the ‘deteriorating’ security situation in a report to the UN Security Council.

Female candidates — for whom nearly 30 per cent of seats are reserved — appear particularly vulnerable to attack. Several dozen have reported receiving death threats. Mahbouba Sadat Ismaili, 32, the headmistress of a high school and a candidate in the eastern province of Khost, said she has barely campaigned outside the provincial capital.—Dawn/The Washington Post News Service