KABUL (AFX) - Polls closed in Afghanistan's first parliament elections in
more than 30 years, with millions of people casting their ballots in defiance of
last-ditch attempts by Taliban rebels to derail the vote.
Violence marred the start of polling, with nine people killed including a
French soldier, while rockets were fired on a UN warehouse in Kabul and two
would-be suicide bombers were wounded as they tried to attack a voting centre.
But as the polls closed officials said a high proportion of the nearly 12.5
mln eligible voters had cast their ballots, signaling another step on a
difficult path to democracy launched after the Taliban regime fell in 2001.
"The voting started relatively slowly but after the morning it has seriously
picked up all over Afghanistan," Peter Erben of the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral
Management Board told reporters.
"I believe a high number of Afghans have turned out to vote."
The vote for the lower house of parliament and 34 provincial councils comes
less than a year after Afghanistan's first presidential poll, won by US-backed
leader Hamid Karzai.
The 26,000 polling stations, scattered from the parched southern deserts to
the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains, started closing at 1130 GMT.
Officials said anyone who had started queuing before that time would be
allowed to vote, after delays as Afghans struggled with the newspaper-sized
ballots required to fit in the 5,800 candidates.
Full results are not expected until late October.
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