Voting was peaceful during the first few hours of Afghanistan’s
presidential election on Saturday, with only isolated attacks on
polling stations as the country embarked on the first democratic
transfer of power since the fall of a Taliban regime in 2001.
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 US-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.
“I call on the people of Afghanistan to prove to the enemies of Afghanistan that nothing can stop them,”Yousaf Nuristani, chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said after he had cast his own vote as a polling station opened in Kabul.
About 12 million 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.
Read more: Cyprus Mail | Cyprus Mail News and More
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 US-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.
“I call on the people of Afghanistan to prove to the enemies of Afghanistan that nothing can stop them,”Yousaf Nuristani, chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said after he had cast his own vote as a polling station opened in Kabul.
About 12 million 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.
Read more: Cyprus Mail | Cyprus Mail News and More
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