Afghans have braved deadly rocket and bomb attacks to vote for a new parliament, with the war-weary nation on full security alert after the Taliban threatened to derail the high-stakes election.
Six people were killed in attacks and complaints of irregularities emerged, following UN and US warnings that security and fraud were concerns in the second parliamentary vote since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban.
Insurgents fired rockets in several cities and set off bombs at a polling station and beside a convoy carrying the governor of Kandahar, the Taliban heartland in the south, but officials said several more attacks were foiled.
Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission, said that by midday turnout for the vote stood at 32%.
‘If this doubles, though I believe it will be more than double, it will have been a success,’ he told reporters.
Men and women queued patiently to vote at separate polling stations, dressed in traditional clothes and burqas, determined to cast their ballots despite the security headaches and fears of retribution.
In many areas, voting was slow in what is seen as a key test for the credibility of President Hamid Karzai's corruption-tainted rule and the success of the US-led campaign against an intensifying Taliban insurgency.
‘I am scared. I know there are Taliban threats but I felt I had to come and vote,’ said housewife Fawzya in the city of Kandahar, who came out with three daughters and two daughters-in-law.
Tens of thousands of Afghan and US-led NATO forces are involved in a massive security operation to guard against raids after the Taliban urged a boycott and warned it would attack anyone involved in the vote.
Karzai - whose own re-election last year was mired in massive fraud - called on people to vote to take their country ‘forward to a better future’ after 30 years of war.
More than 2,500 candidates are contesting 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, or Wolesi Jirga - a key step in a US-led process to bring democracy to the impoverished and conservative Muslim country.
Among them are 406 women contesting 68 seats reserved for them under legislation designed to better their rights.
The vote comes at a pivotal time for 148,800 US-led NATO troops trying to reverse the insurgency and allow American troops to start leaving next year.
Polls closed at 4pm, although those still queuing would be allowed to vote, an IEC official said.
