Defying Taliban warnings and scattered attacks,Afghans voted on Thursday in an election that has become a critical benchmark of the nations progress for both the Afghan government and the Obama administration. The polls closed at 5 pm and the vote-counting began immediately. On the basis of what weve seen so far,it seems clear that the Taliban failed to disrupt these elections, said Richard C Holbrooke,US special envoy to the region,after he toured polling stations in Kabul. President Hamid Karzai said at a news conference that there had been 73 incidents of violence in 15 provinces throughout the country. The Afghan people dared bombs,rockets and intimidations,but came out and voted, Karzai said. Karzais main opponent Abdullah Abdullah called the low turnout in Kabul unsatisfactory. He added that his supporters were lodging complaints of fraud,in particular from Kandahar. But even though it was too early to tell,Abdullah said preliminary results were hopeful. Despite all the difficulties,despite all the security problems and other problems,people went to the polls and they participated in this day, he said. Insurgents in the south threw up makeshift roadblocks in one area to warn off voters,and in Kandahar,witnesses said,insurgents hanged two people because their fingers were marked with indelible ink. I know the Taliban threaten people not to vote,but I am coming and using my vote, said Bakht Muhammad,24,after he voted in Kandahar. I want change. I want security. I want to live my life in our country. The polls opened at 7 am. As early as 8 am in Kabul,officials at the American Embassy were getting complaints of fraud. Ashraf Ghani,who is one of the presidential candidates,e-mailed US officials to say that he had reports that his opponents were stuffing ballot boxes. Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost,who had 10 per cent support in pre-election polls,said he washed off the supposedly indelible ink and called on authorities to immediately stop this election. This is not an election,this is a comedy, Bashardost said. All the candidates and the rivals sent their complaints to the Independent Election Commission, Karzai said. In Kabul,the Afghan police fought a gunbattle on Thursday with three men who took over a house overlooking police headquarters in the Kart-e-Now district of Kabul,killing two of them and capturing one,a police official said. The men were suspected of being suicide attackers. A Taliban spokesman,Zabihullah Mujahid,said earlier that three Taliban guerrillas were involved in the shooting. In Kandahar,there were few people on the streets after nine rockets were fired. But when the rocket fire eased,people slowly began making their way to the polling stations. In Wardak,there were more security officials than voters at many polling stations after six rockets fell just before the polls opened and three more followed soon. In Kabul,Zahir Azimi,a spokesman for Defence Ministry,said on television that the voting process was proceeding better than expected. In Paktia,he said,two would-be suicide bombers were shot to death. Some 300,000 security personnel members from Afghan and NATO forces were deployed to guard the polls,he said. But residents of Kabul said the turnout seemed lower than in previous elections in 2004 and 2005.
