KABUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Afghans go to the polls on Sept. 18 to elect a total of 249 members to the country's lower house of parliament, or wolesi jirga. Here are some of the main issues surrounding the election:
SECURITY
Violence in Afghanistan has spiralled this year with a record number of casualties among foreign and Afghan troops. Civilian deaths have also soared and the main concern on polling day will be security. Although not able to completely disrupt last year's presidential election, attacks and violent threats by Taliban-led insurgents kept many voters away from polling booths, particularly in the south and east. The Taliban have again vowed to attack this year's poll, hitting first foreign forces and then Afghan targets. Four candidates and at least 15 campaign workers have been killed in attacks blamed on militants. Civilians are also being caught in the crossfire. Many candidates have complained that intimidation by insurgents has kept them from campaigning in their own electoral districts.
Afghans will lead security for the election and say they are completely prepared.
But there are real doubts despite some 150,000 foreign troops and around 300,000 Afghan police and soldiers. At least 1,019 polling centres out of a total of 6,835 will remain closed because of security fears, Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) has said. There are plans to help voters cast ballots in safer areas but thousands of voters could still be disenfranchised, particularly ethnic Pashtuns in the most volatile areas in the south and east. Insecurity in many parts of the country will also prevent independent observers from reaching many of the polling centres and could give way to vote rigging and ballot stuffing like that in last year's fraud-marred presidential election.
Violent protests in reaction to a plan by a small U.S. church to burn copies of the Koran may have the potential to delay the vote, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan has warned.
CORRUPTION
Along with poor security, corruption and cronyism are among the main gripes of ordinary Afghans, with many people saying they are more fed up with widespread graft than with the Taliban insurgents.
Many also complain that parliament, which is supposed to voice their grievances and keep the government in check, is made up mainly of ex-warlords and powerbrokers who only use their position to serve their own interests.
At least 76 candidates have already been disqualified for a range of irregularities, ranging from allegations they are former warlords to improper registration.
One of parliament's most outspoken critics, Ramazan Bashardost, is a lawmaker himself and came third in last year's presidential poll. He ran his campaign on an anti-corruption ticket and says parliament is no more than a rubber stamp for President Hamid Karzai's government.
Corruption and poor governance are also among the main concerns in Washington and are sure to be factored in when U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a strategy review of the increasingly unpopular war in December. Karzai says he has taken steps to tackle corruption within his own government but critics say they do not go far enough. Parliament has remained largely powerless against Karzai but has been increasingly flexing its muscle and recently blocked the president's cabinet selection. The recent crisis at Kabulbank, Afghanistan's largest private financial institution, also highlighted concerns over graft.
WOMEN
Afghanistan's constitution says a quarter of the seats in parliament's lower house -- or 68 out of the 249 total -- must be allocated to women. In the 2005 parliamentary election, women won 28 percent of the seats, just over the quarter needed. The IEC began public campaigns to encourage women after there were few early registrations. The amount of female candidates now stands at 16 percent of the total of roughly 2,447 candidates, marginally higher than the 12 percent in 2005. Rights campaigners and observers will be keen to see whether women gain more seats than the guaranteed quota in this year's poll.
Afghanistan, however, still remains one of the most conservative countries in the world and women generally are shunned from public roles, especially in rural areas, and campaigning as a woman comes with even more dangers. Last month, unknown gunmen killed five campaign workers for an outspoken female candidate, Fawzia Gilani, in western Herat. Women, many in Herat, have been attacked simply because they worked in public roles.
ETHNIC DIVISIONS
Afghanistan is still largely divided on ethnic lines and although candidates stand as individuals, some blocs in parliament are formed by regional powerbrokers based on ethnicity. Others belong to various political parties and factions, many formed by warlords who fought for and against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and in the subsequent civil war. While less important during elections, these blocs can be effective when voting on issues in parliament. Some observers say the current system encourages candidates to act along narrow ethnic and religious lines.
Abdullah Abdullah, runner-up in last year's presidential election, recently accused the president of using his allies to lavishly fund campaigns of loyal candidates in order to tame parliament. Karzai, a Pashtun, represents Afghanistan's largest ethnic group. Although Abdullah is half Pashtun, he is known for championing the causes of Afghanistan's second ethnic group, the Tajiks, and was a prominent member of the alliance which fought the Taliban. Other ethnic groups include the Uzbeks, loyal to ex-guerrilla leader Abdul Rashid Dostum, and Hazaras.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Paul Tait)
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