Emergency Grant Aid to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the Voter Registration Project in Afghanistan

March 22, 2004

On March 19 (Fri), the Government of Japan decided to extend emergency grant aid of 8.2 million dollars (one billion 400,000 yen) to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support its "Afghan Voter Registration Project" in Afghanistan.
The Bonn Agreement reached by factions concerned in Afghanistan in December 2001 paved the way to the political process (Bonn Process), and the new constitution was adopted in accordance to the Agreement. Voter registration is indispensable for the election to be held in June to launch a permanent administration. Based on the fact that the Bonn Agreement requires the United Nations to carry out voter registration, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UNDP began registration procedures in December last year and will set up voter registration offices throughout Afghanistan and conduct voter registration as well as civic education on the subject by May.
Japan has provided assistance totaling about 600 million dollars for the political process, improvement of security and reconstruction in general, to achieve the "consolidation of peace" in Afghanistan, and it has decided to implement this emergency grant aid, taking into account the importance of voter registration in the progress of political process in Afghanistan.

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