Afghans brave death threats to vote

TALEBAN threats scared some voters and dampened turnout in Afghanistan's south yesterday during the country's second presidential election.

Insurgents killed 26 Afghans in scattered attacks, but despite the violence officials insisted the militants had failed in their attempts to disrupt the vote.

After ten hours of voting, including a last-minute, one-hour extension, election workers began to count millions of ballots. Initial results weren't expected for several days.

A top election official said he thought 40 to 50 per cent of the country's 15 million registered voters cast ballots – a turnout that would be far lower than the 70 per cent who cast ballots for president in 2004.

Election commission head Azizullah Ludin said 6,192 polling stations had opened, 94 per cent of the number planned.

Low turnout in the south would harm president Hamid Karzai's re-election chances and boost the standing of his top challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. Turnout in the north appeared to be stronger, a good sign for Mr Abdullah.

The election is in large measure a referendum on Mr Karzai, a master coalition-builder who is personally liked by most Afghans but also widely accused of running a government that is corrupt, ineffective and entirely dependent on international aid.

The president relied for votes on the endorsements of many of the country's notorious former militia chiefs, raising alarm among his western backers that the cost of a victory in the election could be a return of warlords to power.

International officials have predicted an imperfect election but expressed hope that Afghans would accept it as legitimate.

A voting official in Kandahar, the south's largest city and the Taleban's spiritual birthplace, said voting appeared to be 40 per cent lower than in 2004.

"In the early morning, the turnout was slow, particularly in the south of the country, but in the middle of the day, it turned out to be very good," said Zekria Barakzai, Afghanistan's deputy chief electoral officer. "In central and some northern provinces, the turnout was huge."

Security companies in the capital reported at least five bomb attacks, and Kabul police exchanged fire for more than an hour with a group of armed men; two suicide bombers died in the clash, police said.

"The Afghan people are used to living under the worst cir-cumstances of insecurity and fighting – why should they be afraid to come out and vote?" said Sayed Mustafa, a Kabul student, showing an ink-stained finger that proved that he had voted.

Kai Eide, head of the UN mission in Kabul, said: "Overall, the security situation has been better than we feared. That is certainly the most positive aspect of these elections."

Mr Karzai, dressed in his traditional purple-and-green-striped robe, voted at a Kabul school. He dipped his index finger in indelible ink – a fraud prevention measure – and held it up for the cameras. Aides released a rare photo of Mr Karzai's wife casting her vote. After polls closed, Mr Karzai complimented Afghans for having the courage to vote and brushed aside questions about turnout.

He said the Afghan people braved "rockets, bombs and intimidation and came out to vote. We'll see what the turnout was, but they came out to vote. That is great."

The president said militants carried out 73 attacks in 15 provinces – a 50 per cent increase in attacks compared with recent days, according to Nato figures.

Mr Karzai, who has held power since the Taleban was removed from power in late 2001, is favoured to finish first among 36 official candidates, although a late surge by Mr Abdullah could force a run-off if no-one wins more than 50 per cent.

Amid fears of fraud, Afghan poll workers made one unusual discovery among ballot papers from the election – a hand-written plea from a woman asking the president to do something about her unfaithful husband.

The note to President Karzai, written in blue pen on a sheet of lined note-paper, was found tucked among voting slips in ballot boxes at a polling station in a small school in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

"With warm greetings to the president," it began. "I am a woman whose husband disappears during the day every day and wanders around the town and through parks with different types of women, while my children and I sit at home hungry, waiting for him," it read.

TALEBAN ROCKETS FAIL TO ACHIEVE THEIR AIM

IN LASHKAR Gah, the capital of Helmand province, the Taleban marked election day by launching rockets indiscriminately in an effort to deter voters. It didn't work.

The sound of sirens had barely faded and police were still hosing down the road from one fatality when Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, cast his ballot. He was followed by the city's top mullah, Haji Maulavi Mokhtar, and one of president Hamid Karzai's key allies in Helmand, former governor Sher Mohammed Akhundzada.

"People won't be scared off by these rockets," Mr Akhundzada said, as another boom rolled across the city. "People in Helmand are brave."

It sounded bullish, but it was true. The first voters were old men. "Why should I be afraid of the rockets," said Mohammed Akbar, 76. "Death comes to us all, but God will help people who help our country."

Lashkar Gah's women proved their mettle as well. "I'm voting for my future and for the future of my children," said Haja, a mother of nine, as the sound of more explosions rumbled through one of the women-only polling stations. "I want a better government, peace and security."

One boy in a wheelchair pushed himself along pitted mud roads for more than two hours to make it to a polling station. Sher Abdullah, 14, said he was determined to have a say in who ruled Afghanistan.