KANDAHAR , Afghanistan (AP) - Thirty Afghan women leaned forward on their plastic chairs Monday as an instructor showed them how to count votes and seal them, in order to keep the country's first presidential election as fair as possible.

"There might be journalists and foreigners watching, so be professional," Rahima Wasifi told the class, a crash course for Saturday's vote.

The women are vital to the success of the election in Kandahar , a city that, as the former base of the Taliban, is symbolic of the hard-line regime's harsh treatment of females.

Since the Taliban were ousted in a U.S.-led war three years ago, millions of women and girls have returned to work and school. But some warlords who still control the countryside share the Taliban's views on women.

A report today by Human Rights Watch, a group based in New York , said that progress has been made toward ensuring women's rights in Afghanistan but that much remains to be done. It said both Taliban guerrillas and warlords allied with the current government are guilty of intimidating women.

Tracts warning women not to vote have been distributed, and four women are among the dozen electoral workers killed in recent months.

Under the Taliban, women were banned from school, jobs and traveling without a male relative, among other restrictions. Many hope the election will add substance to the freedoms declared in the constitution adopted last January.

U.N. organizers say 41 percent of all registered voters are women. Yet the proportion who registered in the south - 27 percent in Kandahar province and just 10 percent in Uruzgan and Zabul provinces - was smaller than hoped.

The trainees here Monday know they are at risk.

"I'm happy to do something for my country," said Maimana Tarek, 43. "But some are afraid of what might happen, that there might be rockets and bombs."