Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission has started a nationwide public outreach program to assist voters of 2010 Parliamentary Election in learning about the electoral process.

Noor Mohammad Noor, spokesperson for the Independent Election Commission on Sunday July 25, told www.afghanistanvotes.com that the IEC has recently deployed more than 1,500 educators, both men and women, in 34 provinces of the country in order to explain the electoral process to voters.

According to Noor, to support the educators’ activities, the IEC has provided them with a series of educational materials on the electoral process. These include loudspeakers, posters, brochures, flyers, flipcharts and an accompanying manual, mock ballots, mock ballot stickers, and leaflets.

He said that the IEC will also follow its public outreach programs through local and nationwide radios and televisions, as well as print media.

Observers believe that public outreach program is a vital aspect of elections in Afghanistan because most Afghan voters, especially villagers, are illiterate and do not know why or how to vote.

Meanwhile, security of educators is a challenging issue both for the IEC and security officials of Afghanistan. In most southern and south eastern provinces, people, as well as the IEC officials cannot publicly participate in the electoral events because of Taliban threats.

However, Noor said that domestic and international security forces will provide security for the educators.