Afghanistan starts voter registration amidst UN security concerns News
Afghanistan starts voter registration amidst UN security concerns

[JURIST] Afghanistan began to register voters Saturday for the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18, a day after UN Special Representative Jean Arnault [official profile] told the UN Security Council that greater security will be necessary [excerpt of statement] to prevent violence at the polls. The Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council election [background briefing, PDF] has been threatened by the Taliban and regional militants attempting to gain power. Increased security will come from the 20,000 US soldiers already in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and 8,300 NATO peacekeepers whose number may be increased by another 2,000 [NATO update]. The Joint Electoral Management Body [official website] hopes to register approximately two million voters over the next month. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

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