The Independent Election Commission, IEC, is fully prepared for the election on September 28 now that all employees have been hired and trained and election materials are being distributed, the head of the commission, Hawa Alam Nuristani, said.

Nuristani, who addressed a news conference alongside security officials, said biometric devices and their servers have also been prepared.

She said that women’s photos on election day are a must, referring to the solution recently provided for those women who do not want to submit to photographs for a biometric identity check. A woman who does not want to be photographed may bring a picture.

Nuristani stressed that only votes verified by biometric identification will be counted on the election day.

“I assure you that the Election Commission is fully prepared to hold the presidential election. All the required tasks have been accomplished,” she said.

IEC officials said that election materials have been transferred to 187 provinces out of 375 and the remaining will be completed by Friday.

“The transfer of election materials began a month ago and we completed this process based on the schedule,” head of the Election Commission’s secretariat, Habib-Ur-Rahman Nang said.

According to IEC figures, 431 out of 5,373 centers will be closed on the election day due to security issues.

Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Khoshal Sadat said that security threats, lack of voter registration, and blocked roads are the main reasons behind the closure of these centers.

“The closure of the centers in these parts does not mean that people will not be able to vote. They can go to the nearest center and vote on election day,” he said.

Meanwhile, IEC officials said they could not hire women employees for 450 polling stations out of the total of 11,000 stations. Therefore, the officials said, they have decided to hire elder men for these stations.

According to the Ministry of Interior, as many as 72,000 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces will be deployed on election day to ensure the security of the process.

Moreover, almost 20,000 to 30,000 forces will be available as reinforcements.

Figures by the Election Commission reveal that almost 9.6 million people have registered to vote in the presidential election, in which 15 candidates are contending.