KABUL, Afghanistan — The much-delayed parliamentary elections in Afghanistan will be held Sept. 18, election officials said Sunday, the next key step toward democracy after a quarter-century of war.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for June last year, but both were delayed because of the slow pace of preparations and efforts to disarm warlords and militia commanders who the United Nations feared would intimidate voters.

The presidential elections were held in October, but the legislative ballot was postponed until May, and then again to September because of what President Hamid Karzai called "technical problems" and lack of an accurate census.

On Sunday, election board chairman Bismillah Bismil gave the specific date for the vote.
After consulting the government and political parties, "we came to the decision to hold the polling on Sept. 18," the election commission said in a statement.

"It will provide Afghans the opportunity to choose their representatives."

The much-delayed vote will select provincial councils as well as the lower house of parliament.

Parliamentary elections are supposed to complete a political process agreed in Bonn, Germany after U.S. and allied Afghan forces drove out the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan adopted a new constitution in January last year and elected Karzai president in the October ballot.

In a visit to Kabul this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would support Afghanistan as it prepares for the vote.

"We will stand by the Afghan people as they go through the next stage in their democratic development, the parliamentary elections that will take place this fall. We look forward to continuing to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," she said.

Afghanistan's population is an estimated 25 million, though there has been no reliable census since decades of war led to flight by millions. Many have returned since fall of Taliban.

There are 10.5 million registered voters within Afghanistan, about 740,000 refugees in Pakistan, and 400,000-600,000 refugees in Iran.

Just over 40 percent registered in Afghanistan are women.