Afghans prepare for free elections

By Ian MacWilliam BBC correspondent in Kabul

No one is even sure how many people are in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's new electoral commission has had its first formal engagement, as the country begins the process of preparing for elections that are due next year.

The six members of the commission met the United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, and attended a meeting of donor countries' representatives.

The members of this new, interim electoral commission were named only a week ago.

The commission now faces the daunting task of registering millions of potential voters in a land where free elections have never been held.

As soon as they find office space, their immediate task will be to set up a public information campaign for a country where elections are virtually unknown.

Then they must begin hiring and training up to 5,000 managers and other employees, to carry out the complex job of registering an estimated 10 million potential voters.

Logistical problems

Afghanistan's only previous experience of national elections was a stage-managed affair in the 1960s, so the country is starting from scratch.

No one even knows how many people now live in Afghanistan.

Millions have been displaced by war and few people have identity documents of any sort.

Then there are the logistical problems of reaching remote villages in an insecure, mountainous land with few good roads.

Political parties

The commission will encourage illiterate villagers and even Afghanistan's wandering nomadic tribes to register themselves at points to be set up throughout the country.

Those who do register will receive a laminated card permitting them to vote.

The UN has been entrusted with the task of overseeing the registration process and the electoral commission will work closely with UN counterparts.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, a few people with an eye on the coming elections are beginning to discuss setting up their own political parties.

It could be the first fragile stirrings of democratic politics in Afghanistan.