April 22 - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration center in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens as they waited to receive identity cards, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on a project of key importance to the credibility of President Ashraf Ghani’s Western-backed government, which has pledged to hold parliamentary elections this year.
However, the Taliban’s main spokesman issued a statement on Twitter denying involvement.
“There were women, children. Everyone had come to get their identity cards,” said Bashir Ahmad who had been nearby when the attack took place, after weeks of relative calm in the capital.
Voter registration centers have been set up across Afghanistan ahead of long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections due to be held in October and there have been serious concerns that militants might attack them.
Unless the process of registering millions of voters, many of whom do not have national identity cards, can be completed before winter sets, the vote would almost certainly have to be postponed until next year.
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