Officials: Few Afghans registered for 2014 vote

Afghan day laborers wait to have their pictures taken to register for the upcoming presidential election in 2014 in a makeshift mobile registration office on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2013. Since the beginning of the registration process, 2.7 million Afghans have registered for voting cards, the statistics department of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced that there are around 12 million eligible voters in the country. The presidential elections are due to be held in April 2014. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Afghan day laborer signs with his thumb print as he registers for the upcoming presidential election in 2014 in a makeshift mobile registration office on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan election officials say that with just four days left to register, barely one-fourth of the country’s eligible voters have signed up to vote in next year’s presidential ballot.

The April 5, 2014, election is considered critical as it comes just nine months before the final scheduled withdrawal of international combat troops from Afghanistan.

Noor Mohammed Noor, who is spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, said today that roughly 12 million Afghans are eligible to vote, yet barely 2.7 million have registered. The good news, he said, is nearly one million of those who have registered are women.

Noor said voter registration centers have been set up across the country but the turnout in some of the violence-wracked southern and eastern regions has been erratic.