UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- More than 90 percent of the Afghans eligible to vote have now registered to do so, a UN spokesman said here Monday.

    "As of July 29, more than 8.6 million Afghans were registered to vote, including more than 5 million men and more than 3.5 million women," spokesman Fred Eckhard told a press briefing in New York.

    He added that the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) of thecountry has announced that the process of voter registration will end on Aug. 15.

    Registrations are likely to resume after the presidential election on Oct. 9 in a bid to boost voter numbers for the national and local parliamentary polls scheduled for April 2005, according to JEMB.

    Afghan electoral authorities estimate between 9.5 million and 9.8 million people are potential voters. The figures are inexact as there has not been an accurate census since the 1970s because of decades of war. Enditem