KABUL - With three days left for the registration of candidates for the September parliamentary elections, no female candidates have nominated themselves in Uruzgan and Panjshir province.

Although the registration process will close on the 19th, Sultan Ahmad Bahin a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said: "We still have time till the end of the week and we will wait." He said the "the law could not be changed", if no women nominated themselves during this set period.

Bahin said 157 women had, so far, nominated themselves for the parliamentary elections and 27 women for the provincial elections. The women's ministry and Wadan Afghanistan an NGO are encouraging women to participate in the elections.

The women's ministry said they had held a meeting with Wadan Afghanistan on May 3rd and around 600 women and men from Kabul and other provinces participated in the meeting.

They added that their local offices in the provinces are encouraging women to participate and nominate themselves for Parliamentary and Provincial Committee elections.

So far Takhar province has the highest number of female contenders across the provinces; officials say 11 women have nominated themselves for the parliamentary elections. Logar and Nimroz provinces have a female candidates for each province.

Sixty-eight, out of 249 seats are allocated for women in parliamentary and in provincial elections. The registration of the nominees that started on the 30th of April will end on May 9th.5