The latest registration figures show that 22 percent of all those who have registered so far are women. The numbers as of yesterday are: 320,770 Afghans have registered; 250,732 men and 70,083 women.

The percentage of women registered in each region is as follows: 20% in Kabul, 43% in Bamyan, 15% in Jalalabad, 24% in Mazar, 17% in Kunduz, 21% in Kandahar, 11% in Gardez, and 30% in Heart.

Registration, as you know, during this first phase is happening in the 8 major urban areas of Afghanistan. Currently there are 52 registration centres open. The number of registration centres are fluctuating a bit these days as registration should not be taking place in locations where there are other activities. This is the case of mosques and schools that will be commencing winter classes. New sites are being identified where this is the case.

Civic education activities continue at full steam to raise awareness about the voter registration process. Up to date, a total of 19,556 face-to-face meetings have been conducted, 5,697 community mobilization events and 15,172 briefings throughout the cities where registration is ongoing.

As part of the civic education efforts, a lexicon has been developed over the past months with the purpose of making available to the Afghan society a compilation of terms and concepts related to registration, elections and political system. The lexicon is currently under the revision of the Afghan Academia of Sciences and will be published after the final editing and the finalization of the illustrations.

In our next briefing on Thursday we are hoping to have our civic education experts here to brief you and answer your questions.

Out of the 184 National Guard personnel who completed the disarmament process, 182 undertook demobilization activities. Three hundred and twenty-two personnel from the 8th Division were disarmed at the Divisional H/Q on the 4th and 5th of January. Disarmament of 200 personnel from the 597 Regimen will take place between 14-15 January with demobilization on15, 17 and 18 January.

I should also tell you that in Kandahar, public service campaign has begun on DDR and public announcements are now aired on a daily basis over the local radio. The announcements initially focus on the "10 Facts you need to know about DDR". You may also be interested to know that the building of Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) regional office in Kandahar is in the process of construction in preparation for commencement of the DDR programme in Kandahar.

This is part of the programme that began in August 2003, with the aim to improve the equitable and expeditious handling of cases in the administration of justice here in Afghanistan.

The overall programme for each group includes a 50 hour-long course that will reach some 450 judges, prosecutors and Justice Ministry officials.

The project is implemented by the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) and the International Institution of Higher Studies in Criminal Law (ISISC), and funded by the Italian Government and it has the support of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

These facilities were handed over by the UN Development Programme to the Ministry of Higher Education at a ceremony held yesterday here in Kabul. All the rooms have furniture, sound and lighting systems, which were installed by GTZ - German Technical Cooperation - for the Loya Jirga. All rooms have air conditioning for the winter and a ventilation system for the summer months. This conference centre represents investments worth US$2 million.

The conference complex is located on the grounds of the Kabul Polytechnic Institute, which was rehabilitated for the Loya Jirga by the UN Office of Projects Services working with local contractors. Over US$1.5 million were invested in the rehabilitation of the Polytechnic Institute. Now students and faculty can benefit from a dining hall with a kitchen that can serve up to 3,000 people three times a day, and rehabilitated Mosque, sports administration building, gymnasium and all six dormitories, which are now winterized, with proper sleeping, bathroom and lounge areas. Additionally, the Polytechnic Institute is now reconnected to the Kabul electrical distribution system - all lighting throughout the compound in now working. The water and sewage systems were also substantially upgraded.

The community that lives in the hill above the Polytechnic Institute also gained two water public access points. Thanks to this they can now collect water nearer their homes and no longer need to walk all the way - up and down the hill - to the main road at the front of the Polytechnic Institute.

A final piece of information, which I am not sure, you are aware of. Some 400 students from the Polytechnic worked during the Constitutional Loya Jirga in a variety of jobs.

For more details on the hand-over ceremony and the list of donor countries that funded the Loya Jirga, including the rehabilitation of the Polytechnic Institute and preparation of the conference centre, please see the press release issued by UNDP.

A total of 45 individuals are participating in this training which is taking place at the Women's Center located in Bamyan City, including representatives of all line ministries (Planning, RRD, Irrigation, Judiciary, Education, Finance, and Health to name only some) and the Provincial Governor himself.

Planning is being finalized for municipal buildings and offices in Bamyan center and will soon expand to include other districts of the Province.

The two-day intensive training, which concludes today, is designed to provide basic knowledge and some practical exercises regarding convoy security. Some 30 police from Kandahar are participating and have been provided knowledge on - different stages of threat assessment, tactical principles for protection, weapons handling, ambush and anti-ambush drill, communications and basic first aid.

An investigation of the incident by the Mazar Police is currently ongoing.

While staff movements were restricted on Thursday evening until security personnel cleared the area, the work of UNAMA and all agencies is back to normal in Mazar.

Questions and Answers

Question: It seems to me that registration of voters is slow. For example if you want elections to take place this year it would be impossible I think? And secondly, the knowledge and information that people have on the process is too low.

Spokesman: I think your right about the first point, and I think you right about the observation that more people need to know more about it [registering]. That's why we have asked our Civic Education colleagues to come and be our special guests at next week's briefing to tell you what they are doing, and to involve you in their efforts to get the word out about the registration and raise awareness of the public. But I should also add, that as we have been mentioning, registration is going to take place in three phases. Phase one only covers the eight major urban areas, phase two spreads the process to provincial areas, and phase three goes to rural areas throughout the country. Of course for you to be able to do that and to speed the process you need to have security condition and arrangements, not only for the staff working in the process to go to the different places - but for the people themselves, to feel comfortable and go and register. It is also very important, and thus the link with civic education, that you have the support and direct involvement of the leadership. We have been telling you about key people in the different areas that have been registering as a means of showing their support and commitment and motivating people to take part in the process. This will continue - but it's extremely important that you have you elders and other political leaders playing a very active role in support of this process. So, I think your right, but this is a process that will be hopefully gaining momentum. One of the aspects - as discussed at our last briefing, is the issue of security and there is a lot of work ongoing with the electoral colleagues led by the JEMB, with government officials, the United Nations and the international partners - the coalition, PRT's, ISAF, on how best to address this issue of security in order to speed up this process of registering voters.

Question: Will you have door-to-door registration of voters?

Spokesman: I think this process will have, as conditions allow, a combination of methods of making it easier for people to register. You might recall that in the last briefing I told you that in Jalalabad we had mobile registration units that make it easier for people to register. But as I said a number of discussion are ongoing to determine how best this can be done, taking into consideration both security and weather conditions. Until further progress I don't think we will be able to outline to you the combination of mechanisms we will use.

Question: Can you tell us how many soldiers have been demobilised in Afghanistan, in total?

Spokesman: After the briefing the Spokesman said that as of the 7th of January a total of 1,903 soldiers had been demobilised in Kunduz, Gardez and Kabul.

Question: Have you got any information on reports from an outbreak of pneumonia in Ghor province?

Spokesman: We spoke about this last week. It was not Whooping Cough, rather a severe type of influenza [and pneumonia]. UNICEF along with their partners and Ministry of Health, after visiting the location were able to confirm this, and advised that the outbreak, which had affected 30 people [mostly children] had been contained.