Some 740,000 Afghan refugees living in Pakistan have registered to vote this Saturday in their homeland's first-ever presidential election, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced today, as campaigning by the candidates formally ended 48 hours ahead of the poll.
The winner of this Saturday’s presidential election in Afghanistan – the first in its history – can claim to genuinely represent the nation, despite the limitations surrounding the poll process, the senior United Nations envoy to the country said today.
Although major progress has been made in the peace process in Bougainville in recent months, the province of Papua New Guinea is not expected to hold elections by the end of the year as planned, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report on the United Nations mission there.
The Taliban and other extremist groups continue to intimidate Afghans against voting in this weekend's historic presidential election, and many government officials, local leaders and military or police figures are partisan campaigners on behalf of candidates, a report co-authored by the United Nations mission finds.
With Afghanistan just a week away from its historic, first-ever presidential elections, hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the country to neighbouring Pakistan are signing up for the vote.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned the deadly terrorist attacks which have wreaked havoc in India, reiterating his long-standing opposition to the targeting of innocent civilians.
Deploring a deadly terrorist bomb blast inside a mosque in Pakistan today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said “no cause or motive can justify attacks on places of worship and innocent civilians."
The people of Afghanistan will vote on 9 October in the first presidential election in their history with the help of more than 115,000 polling officials, 100,000 voting screens and 300 donkeys, the United Nations mission to the country said today as it unveiled details of the final preparations taking place.
The United Nations General Assembly wrapped up its annual high-level debate today by hearing calls for continued assistance to small island nations struggling to deal with development and environmental issues.
As delegates gather in Sri Lanka to review efforts to halt the commercial sexual exploitation of South Asian children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today called for better enforcement against traffickers and more cross-border cooperation by the region’s governments.
