Afghans vote in landmark democratic elections

 
Voting: Afghan women line up to cast their ballot at a polling station during the presidential elections in Takhar, Afghanistan

Voters turned out today to take part in the first few hours of Afghanistan's presidential election, with isolated attacks on polling stations.

Four voters were wounded in an explosion at a polling station in the southeastern province of Logar. It was the most serious attack so far on an election that Taliban insurgents had vowed to derail, branding it a U.S.-backed sham.

Police in the northern province of Faryab said they had arrested a would-be suicide bomber trying to enter a polling station, while in Ghazni, in the southeast, a volley of rockets were fired but landed far from a voting centre.

Yousaf Nuristani, chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said: "I call on the people of Afghanistan to prove to the enemies of Afghanistan that nothing can stop them."

About 12m are eligible to vote, and there are eight candidates with former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmay Rassoul, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani the favourites.

Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, is barred by the constitution from running for the presidency again. But, after 12 years in power, he is widely expected to retain influence through politicians loyal to him.

More than 350,000 Afghan troops were on duty, guarding against attacks on polling stations and voters. The capital, Kabul, has been sealed off from the rest of the country by rings of roadblocks and checkpoints.

The Taliban have warned civilians they would be targeted if they try to vote and at least 10 percent of polling stations are expected to be shut due to security threats.

Most foreign observers left Afghanistan in the wake of a deadly attack on a hotel in Kabul last month.

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A veteran Associated Press photographer was killed and a senior correspondent of the same news agency was wounded on Friday when a policeman opened fire on the two women in eastern Afghanistan as they reported on preparations for the poll.

The National Directorate of Security intelligence agency said it had arrested a man and seized a cache of rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and police uniforms from a house in Kabul hours before the election began.

In the city of Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, the mood was tense. Vehicles were not allowed to move on the roads and checkpoints were set up at every intersection.

Hamida, a 20-year-old teacher working at a Kandahar polling station, said more than a dozen women turned up in the first two hours of voting and added that she expected more to come despite the threat of an attack by the Taliban.

She said: "We are trying not to think about it, but it's a bit of a concern."

The election is a landmark after 13 years of struggle to quell an insurgency that has claimed the lives of nearly 3,500 members of a U.S.-led coalition of troops. Afghan casualties have been far worse, with at least 16,000 civilians and thousands more soldiers killed in the violence.

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