'Worsening Security Threatens Afghan Elections', The Age, 7 October 2008
EXCERPT: "Violence is threatening to derail plans to register voters across rural Afghanistan, but residents in the capital, Kabul, are just as worried. The challenging task of registering millions of voters for next year's presidential election began yesterday amid fears that the Taliban and local warlords will inflict a campaign of intimidation to cripple the process. After a summer in which Taliban attacks edged closer to Kabul, killing aid workers, soldiers and police and cutting off key roads with checkpoints, both locals and international aid workers in the city have been left tense and wary. Despite the holiday atmosphere that accompanied the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, the faces of picnickers in the city's Babur's Gardens darkened when contemplating their security and the encroaching violence. 'People are worried. We don't know what will happen,' a student said. A man lowered his voice to say things were getting 'worse every day'. As well as the widely reported ambushes that killed 10 French paratroopers and three aid workers near Kabul in August, there has been a steady stream of attacks on police checkpoints, soldiers and officials in nearby provinces."
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See also:
'Resurgent Taleban vow to disrupt 'joke' presidential election', Times Online, 7 October 2008
'Afghans start registering voters for 2009 polls', The Associated Press, 6 October 2008
'Afghanistan begins voter registration for presidential elections', Xinhua, 6 October 2008
Related posts:
'Problems for upcoming elections may be resolved by press', 25 September 2008
'Beset by war, beleaguered by poverty', 22 August 2008
'Afghanistan's readiness to vote debated', 25 July 2008
'Afghanistan to hold separate presidential, parliamentary elections', 9 April 2008
