Last Moves Before Afghan Vote

Within just four days, about 650,000 Afghan refugees in Pakistan have registered to vote in landmark presidential elections in their homeland on Oct. 9, organizers said Monday.

The International Organization for Migration said that according to its initial estimate, 25 percent of the registered voters were women.

Meanwhile, one of the leading contenders facing heavily favored Afghan President Hamid Karzai in historic elections said Monday he is talking with other top candidates about joining forces to present a unified opposition in Saturday's vote. But other candidates denied they would give up the race to form a coalition.

The quick-fire refugee registration campaign ended at 4 p.m. Monday after it was extended for one day to encourage more refugees to sign up for Afghanistan's first direct presidential election after two decades of war.

About 100,000 people were estimated to have registered on Monday, in addition to the 550,000 who signed up on the previous three days, said IOM spokesman Darren Boisvert. He said confirmed figures would be available Tuesday.

An estimated 400,000 refugees are expected to vote in Iran.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the refugee registration had been a "major success, despite all the logistical difficulties and short notice given for these elections."

Whereas voter registration inside Afghanistan was conducted over a period of months — resulting in 10.6 million people signing up — preparations for the out-of-country voting have been rushed because of lengthy negotiations among the host countries, the United Nations and Afghanistan.

Despite some threats against election staff and at least one act of arson at a registration center, organizers reported no major attacks.

Inside Afghanistan, pro-Taliban rebels have been trying to sabotage the poll.

The deaths Saturday and Sunday of three Afghan soldiers and two militants were a mere blip in the headlines, but they bring to at least 957 the number of people reported killed in political violence this year, according to a review by The Associated Press.

President Bush has acclaimed Afghanistan's Oct. 9 presidential election as a beacon of hope for the Islamic world, and a prelude to even more tricky elections scheduled to take place in January in violence-plagued Iraq.

But the tally of dead in relatively more peaceful Afghanistan is an indicator of the task facing both the U.S. military and whomever becomes Afghanistan's first directly elected president to consolidate a shaky peace.

Karzai, who came to power after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban militia in late 2001, is expected to defeat his 17 challengers, and could win much of the refugee vote, particularly among fellow Pashtun tribesmen staying in Pakistan.

Addressing a crowd of several hundred supporters in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Yunus Qanooni said he was in talks with 14 of the 18 candidates in the race — including Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum and Hazara leader Mohammed Mohaqeq. He said he was hopeful they would eventually agree to back him.

Representatives of Dostum and Mohaqeq denied talk of a coalition.

The vast field of 18 contenders has raised speculation that even the popular Karzai will be unable to win outright on Saturday, prompting a run-off election between the top two vote-getters.

"Whether a second round will be needed is something that the Afghan people will decide by their free will when they go to the polling stations," Karzai told reporters Sunday after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

But "I hope for all the good reasons that the elections will not go to the second round, because it would be very expensive for us," he said.

"Legitimacy will increase tremendously after the elections," Karzai added, "but in terms of the provision of services and the capability of the Afghan administration, it will take some time for the country to do better."

Meanwhile, international observers were getting into position to monitor the vote across the rugged countryside. The head of one of two European-based missions said Monday the teams will not pass judgment on the war-battered nation's first attempt at democracy.

"We are not here to issue a soundbite about the election," said Ambassador Robert Barry, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Election Support Team. "We are not going to say whether it is free and fair, or free, fair and flawed or whatever ... but we will be making recommendations which we hope will be useful."

Fighting between suspected al Qaeda-linked militants and security forces near Pakistan's rugged border with Afghanistan left four rebels dead and five soldiers wounded, the military said Monday.

Millions of Afghans who fled fighting and drought are still living in Pakistan and Iran, wary of going back because of a lack of jobs, a persistent Taliban insurgency and continuing lawlessness in Afghanistan.

Inside Afghanistan, where there was more time for U.N. and Afghan officials to encourage conservative communities to allow female participation, 41 percent of registered voters were women.

At some camps in northwestern Pakistan, the women's turnout appeared very low.

At Jalozai, the biggest refugee camp in the country, election worker Mohammed Haroon said that at one registration center, some 6,500 men had signed up, compared to 379 women.

Since it was consolidated in the 1700s, Afghanistan has never had a democratic government. It was ruled by monarchs — almost exclusively from the Pashtun tribe — for most of its history, although the last king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, did introduce a partially elected national assembly in 1964 reforms.

Nine years later, however, the monarchy was overthrown, but the republican government set up in its place soon collapsed. In 1978, a Marxist rebellion took power, followed the next year by the Soviet invasion and ten years of occupation. When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, a brief period of peace was shattered by civil war among several factions, including the Taliban.