The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Saturday, that 189,061 people, including just over 42,000 women, registered in the first seven days after the launch of the voter registration process last week.

One IEC member said the turnout had not been satisfactory.

“People’s turnout at voter registration centers is unfortunately not satisfactory,” IEC commissioner Maliha Hassan said.

The Head of the Massoud Foundation and a former diplomat, Ahmad Wali Massoud, meanwhile called on the people to participate and make sure they register and vote so as to prevent election fraud as experienced in the past.

“If we leave the ground, for sure, those who committed fraud and those who violated the people’s rights to select candidates will come back once again,” Massoud said.

“More efforts must be done in elections awareness. People should be motivated in order to bring them to the field and no doubt they will expect fundamental reforms in the electoral system,” said Ahmad Massoud, the son of National Hero Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The deputy chief of army staff for the Afghan Air Force Major General Abdul Wahab Wardak, who registered in Kabul on Saturday, assured the people that Afghan security forces will ensure the safety of the election process.

“Security of all centers specified by the (election) commission will be ensured by the Afghan forces,” Wardak said.

Earlier this week, the IEC’s commissioner Maazullah Dawlati said that voter registration turnout was still slow.

He said the commission would like to register 12 to 15 million people for the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections.

“The statistics which the commission receives indicates that we will not reach our target that we have set, but we have launched a major awareness campaign and hope that the numbers increase in the coming days,” said Dawlati.

According to the IEC’s timeline, the first phase of the voter registration process at provincial centers will continue until May 13. The process will start in district centers on May 15 until May 28. From May 30 to June 12, the process will be carried out in villages and remote areas across the country.