Voter Registration

One wonderful link and one not-so-wonderful link from Allah: Wonderful link bq. At least 10.3 million Afghans have enrolled to vote in their country's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections after the final registration sites closed last Friday, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) has announced. bq. That figure is expected to rise as registration details continue to be verified over the next few weeks at the Kabul headquarters of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), UNAMA spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters yesterday at a briefing. bq. Mr. de Almeida e Silva said 10,353,380 people were confirmed as registered voters as of last Saturday, with women comprising more than 4.2 million, or 41 per cent, of the total. Not-so-wonderful link: bq. A series of bombs went off at a UN voter registration office in western Afghanistan, injuring six Afghan police, setting vehicles ablaze and shattering windows, police and the United Nations said today. It was the latest in a string of attacks targeting election workers. bq. The blasts occurred at about 8 p.m. Thursday at a voter registration site in Farah City, near the border with Iran and about 750 kilometres southwest of the capital, Kabul, said Mohammed Rasool Khan, the deputy police chief for the province. Progress is being made -- especially that 41 percent of the registrations were women, something unthinkable under the Taliban just a few years ago.