Afghanistan on Sunday started registering new voters for elections next year

Afghanistan on Sunday started registering new voters for elections next year, a crucial step towards a legitimate government taking over when President Hamid Karzai relinquishes power.
  
Four million names are expected to be added to the electoral roll, currently containing 16 million voters before polls in April 2014, though many Afghans fear that the date could be delayed due to the threat of attack by the Taliban insurgency.
  
The presidential race -- from which Karzai is barred after serving two terms -- is seen as the key test of the success of US-led international military intervention since the Taliban regime fell in 2001.
  
"Today we are happy to have launched the voter registration process," Fazel Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), said at a registration centre in Kabul. "We will implement all the election processes step by step according to the timetable."
  
Registration began in 41 centres in all 34 provinces for those who have turned 18, had previously not registered or have lost their voter cards. The process will last two months in the cities and will then move to rural districts and villages, continuing until just before election day.