KABUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The landmark voters' registration process would formally wrap up throughout the post-war AfghanistanSunday as nearly 10 million people have registered to vote, the spokesman of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

    "Voters' registration closes today throughout Afghanistan," Manoel de Almeida e Silva told journalists here at a news briefing.

    However, he added that the Election Commission may extend the registration sites in a very few locations for a few days if needed.

    He declined to give more details, but security concerns in the restive southern region especially the militants-plaguing Zabul and Uruzgan province had barred many from signing up for the elections.

    Some 12 election workers and over 20 election card holders havebeen killed by suspected Taliban militias since the inception of election process in late last year across the country.

    "As of the 14th of August a total of 9,911,716 people (out of 10.5 million eligible voters) including 4,147,378 women have registered throughout the country to vote," the spokesman noted.

    The first-ever direct presidential and parliamentary elections in the post-Taliban country amid increasing Taliban-related insurgency would be held on October 9 and April 2005 respectively.

    Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar whose regime wasousted under a US-led military invasion in late 2001 has termed the upcoming elections as a drama 'to legitimize the US occupationof Afghanistan" and threatened to derail it. Enditem