Field Report

(Greg is our political expert, and here offers a contrarian view of the election based on meetings with candidates. Update: See also a new video in our Multimedia section in which Greg discusses the pros and cons of the single non-transferable vote system.)

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced today that security concerns raised by local and foreign security agencies have led to the closing of 81 additional polling centers in Nangarhar province for Afghanistan's upcoming Wolesi Jirga elections. This is the first change to the list of polling centers first announced by the IEC on August 18.

Here are our notes from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) press conference led by IEC chief Fazal Ahmad Manawi held in Kabul Thursday. (To see previous notes from previous press conferences, check out the tags at the bottom of this and other posts.) Mr Manawi spoke about delivery of election material, insecurity in some provinces, their civic awareness program, and information about disqualified candidates and sample ballots.

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission Chairman Fazil Ahmad Manawi speaking at a press conference August 26 2010 Kabul (photo by Colin Cookman)