The Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Wednesday announced the final list of polling centers that will be open on June 14 for the final round of this year's presidential election. Based on the list, 24 polling centers that were closed during the first round will be fully operational during the runoff.
The new centers that have been opened for the second round are in Nangarhar, Laghman, Faryab and Daikondi provinces.
The final list includes 147 polling centers in southern Helmand province, with 72 centers remaining closed due to Taliban activity. Similarly, 153 centers will be open in Farah and 74 will be closed.
There are 238 centers in Ghor province, but 50 will remain closed because of insurgent threats. In Badghis, from a total number of 122 centers, 52 will remain closed.
And in a promising sign of this significance of this year's election, of the 234 centers in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Afghan Taliban, only 10 centers will be closed.
Meanwhile, Maidan Wardak province, of 124 centers, 36 will be closed.
Afghan security forces have stepped up operations around the country in an effort to gain advantage over militants with just over a week left until voters head to the polls.
According the IEC, 77 centers have been considered for Logar province and 6 centers will be closed on Election Day. Of the 177 centers in Kunduz, 32 centers will not be operational. In Nangarhar, another historically restive eastern province, out of the 391 available centers Nangarhar, 107 will be closed. In Faryab, only 26 out of 213 will be closed.
The IEC list shows closures in a number of provinces that are considered relatively safe. There are about 138 centers in Parwan province, and 18 centers will be closed. In western Herat, there are 401 centers and 79 centers will be closed. Of the 111 venters in Sar-e-Pul, 32 centers will be shut.
In contrast, Ghazni, a larger and typically more insecure province, has 285 centers, and 110 will be closed. Of Laghman's 95 centers, 41 will be inactive. In Urozgan, 13 of 57 potential centers will be closed and in Badakhshan 34 of 281 centers will be closed because of Taliban militants.
The teams of the two runoff candidates - Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai - have welcomed the announcement, but asked the election commission to clarify the exact location of the centers.
“if these centers exist in secure places, then it is okay, if they exist in insecure regions, then the ground will be paved for fraud, we demand the IEC work transparently in this respect,” Dr. Abdullah's campaign staff member Syed Aqa Fazil Sancharaki said on Wednesday.
The list included 557 centers in Kabul, 108 in Panjsher, 188 in Bamyan, 319 in Balkh, 215 in Takhar, 62 in Nimroz, 174 in Daikondi, 212 in Paktia, 266 in Paktika, 186 in Khost, 101 in Samangan, and 281 in Baghlan as operational in light of better security environments in those provinces.
According to security officials, from the total number of 6,262 available centers across the country, 900 centers will be closed on Election Day due to security threats. That number is roughy the same as the first round.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/iec-finalizes-list-runoff-polling-...
