Karzai urges Afghans to register for elections

Kabul, Aug 23: President Hamid Karzai has called on Afghans to register their names and get voter cards for the country's presidential election next year, the presidential palace said in a statement on Thursday.

"President Karzai, during his recent bi-weekly radio address, called on the people of Afghanistan to visit voter registration centres and get voting cards," reported Xinhua, citing the statement on Thursday.

"The national process of election will not be successful unless all eligible Afghans take part in the process and use their rights to elect their leaders," Karzai said in the statement.

The number of newly registered Afghans for the coming elections has exceeded 300,000 over the last two months, officials said recently.

Afghanistan's third presidential election, since the Taliban's fall in late 2001, is set to be held April 5, 2014.

In 2009, about seven million of the more than 11 million eligible voters had exercised their franchise to elect Afghanistan's president.

IANS