+ A
A -
dpa
Kabul
Afghanistan is set to hold much-delayed parliamentary elections on Saturday, the first since NATO's combat mission ended in 2014.
An election regarded as successful would send a strong message to the Taliban and the Islamic State and would also set the stage for next year's planned presidential elections.
Afghanistan's major donors have been pushing for the polls to take place because they see them as an important milestone for a nation into which they have poured billions of dollars.
But the polls have been overshadowed by concerns about vote-rigging and security in the war-torn country, in which bombings by the militants have claimed more than 1,000 civilian lives so far this year.
Some 8.8 million voters in 33 provinces~have registered to vote for 250 representatives. Voters in Afghanistan's 34th province, Ghazni, will remain at home however - elections are not being held there due to a local dispute about the division of constituencies. Kuchis (Nomads) and Sikhs - a small community numbering just over 100 families throughout the country - make up another two constituencies.~But Afghanistan has a history of election fraud with past polls repeatedly tainted by widespread ballot-stuffing, and there are fears that a discredited process could provoke a fresh crisis in Afghan politics.
This time round, major political parties as well as analysts have already expressed scepticism about the true number of registered voters.
In four constituencies the number of registered voters exceeds the estimated number of eligible voters by more than 100 per cent, according to a report~by the think tank Afghanistan Analysts'Network.
And early last month the Grand Coalition of Afghanistan, comprising several powerful opposition parties, displayed thousands of fake national identity cards stamped with voter stickers to the local media, saying they were evidence of widespread fraud.
Mohammad Yousuf Rashed, head of the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA), an institution working to make elections more transparent and enhance accountability, says observation organizations have been kept in the dark during the registration process.
