Election Overview At A Glance

Seats Contested

• 249 Seats in 34 Provinces, plus one national constituency for Kuchi Nomads.
• 68 Seats Reserved for Female Candidates
• Under President Karzai's amendments to the Electoral Law made earlier this year, reserved seats with no female candidates will go to male candidates.

Candidates

• There were 2,532 total registered and eligible candidates as of September 16, 2010.
• 399 of those candidates (approximately 15%) were female.
• 32 candidates will appear on the ballot with a registered political party affiliation. Only five parties qualified with the Independent Election Commission to appear on the ballot.
• The Electoral Complaints Commission has de-listed as ineligible 91 candidates from the original list of registered candidates due to electoral law violations as of September 16, 2010.
• Of these, 36 have lost their candidacy due to membership of an illegal armed group, one because someone else had registered for him and the remainder (54) because they failed to resign from government positions on time.

Polling Centers

• Polling Centers Planned for 2009: 6,524
• Polling Centers Reported by the IEC to Have Opened 2009: 6,293
• Polling Centers Included in Final Results After ECC Review 2009: 5,438
• Polling Centers in Preliminary List for 2010: 6,835
• Planned for 2010 as of August 18, 2010: 5897
• Update to 2010 Planned: The IEC announced on September 7, 2010 the closing of an additional 81 polling centers in Nangarhar province, for a new planned total of 5,816.

See our analysis of polling centers here and more information here, and more on candidates here.