DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 19.7 million people have registered to vote in Tanzania's civic polls slated for Nov. 24, a senior official said on Friday.

Selemani Jafo, the Minister of State in the President's Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government, said the target was to register 22.9 million voters but only 19.7 million registered for the polls to elect civic leaders.

Dar es Salaam region ranked first where it registered 2.9 million voters, Jafo told a news conference in the capital Dodoma.

He said Dar es Salaam was followed by Coast, Mwanza, Tanga, Singida, Morogoro, Mbeya, Katavi, Ruvuma and Mtwara regions by registering majority voters.

Jafo said none of the 26 Tanzania mainland regions registered voters are below 50 percent.

Last week, President John Magufuli warned district and regional officials who failed to mobilize voters to register for the civic polls.

Magufuli made the warning after Jafo had briefed him on progress of the registration.

Jafo said a preliminary report on the registration of voters for the civic polls showed that most of the country's 26 regions were lagging behind.

"Only a handful of regions have registered more than 50 percent of the voters but most of the regions were still lagging behind," Jafo had told President Magufuli.

On Oct. 8, Magufuli launched registration of voters for the civic polls, urging the voters to choose dedicated leaders. Enditem

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