KABUL, Aug. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Authorities would establish 5,000 polling sites to facilitate participation of Afghan voters in the forthcoming presidential race, a spokesman of the joint UN-Afghan Election Commission said Thursday.

    "Across Afghanistan there will be up to 5,000 polling centers where people go to vote," Julian Type told reporters here at a press briefing.

    Each polling center, he added, would have five polling stations and so there will be up to 25,000 polling stations throughout the post-Taliban country.

    The first-ever post-Taliban presidential polls with the contention of 18 candidates including President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to be held on Oct. 9.

    "Voting will be held on a single day," noted the official.

    Commenting on the duration of its counting, he said, "This could take two or three weeks."

    "Our intention as far as possible is to count the votes from province in that province," the official maintained.

    As of Aug. 10, a total of 9,643,302 out of 9.8 million eligiblevoters have registered for the presidential election. The registration process is to end on Sunday across the country. Enditem