News Analysis: Deadly attack on registration site militants' attempt to sabotage Afghan elections

by Abdul Haleem

KABUL, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Amid government efforts to accelerate the voters' registration process for the upcoming elections in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber targeted a polling site in the Dashti Barchi district on the western edge of Kabul city on Sunday, killing more than 60 people and injuring scores of others.

The extremist Islamic State (IS) outfit has claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing attack which has drawn wide condemnation at home and abroad.

Hundreds of people, including men and women, were lining up to obtain Tazkira or a National Identity Card to vote in the upcoming parliamentary and district councils' elections slated for Oct. 20 when a suicide bomber blew himself up causing the tragic incident.

Afghan political experts believe that the bloody attack on the voters' registration site reflects the strong opposition of the anti-government militant groups to the election process in the war-ravaged country.

The first parliamentary election in post-Taliban Afghanistan was held in 2005 while the second parliamentary polls took place in 2010.

However, the third parliamentary election, originally scheduled for early 2015, has been repeatedly postponed.

The voter registration process started on April 14 for the next parliamentary polls. Since then the militants have abducted three employees of the voters' registration service in the western Ghor province and shot dead two guards of a registration site in the eastern Nangarhar province in the past week.

"The aim of the militants' attack on civilians at the site of voters' registration here in the Dashti Barchi area of Kabul, is to sabotage the upcoming elections in the country," a legislator, Aref Rahmani, told Xinhua.

The analyst also suggested that the militants do not believe in elections, in humanity, peace, coexistence and in the government either.

Similarly, Taliban militants, the main anti-government fighting force, have also lashed out at the government's efforts to hold parliamentary elections as a fraudulent attempt to rule Afghanistan.

Purported spokesperson for the hardliner Taliban outfit, Zabihullah Majahid, has reportedly said that conducting anything, including the holding of elections in the presence of foreign forces is illegal.

More than 230,000 people, according to the election commission sources, have registered to vote since registration began on April 14.

However, experts believe that the turnout is low. According to observers, between 12 million to 13 million out of the country's some 30 million population are eligible to vote.

"Security concerns have obviously undermined the turnout of voter registration," analyst and chief editor of the state-run English daily The Kabul Times, told Xinhua.

The low turnout has also worried those at the helm of political affairs and the Council of Ministers, in its meeting with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, called upon the country's compatriots to register with letter and spirit for the next elections.

Expressing concerns over security challenges, a Kabul resident, Mohammad Frooq, said that few people will register to vote if the government fails to protect voters' lives.

Nevertheless, the Interior Ministry has given its assurances it will utilize all possible means to ensure the security of both the election workers and the voters. Enditem