Afghans defy Taliban threats to vote in large numbers

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans voted in large numbers Saturday, April 5, to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai in the country’s first democratic transfer of power as US-led forces end their 13-year war.

Despite Taliban threats, voting was largely peaceful with long queues in cities across the country as voters cast their ballots at around 6,000 centers under tight security.

The Taliban had rejected the election as a foreign plot and urged their fighters to target polling staff, voters and security forces, but there were no major attacks reported during the day.

The head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani told Agence France-Presse (AFP) turnout was better than expected, without giving figures, but lower in rural districts than cities.

“We have had reports of ballot papers running low in some areas and have ordered regional and provincial centers to supply extra material,” he said.

Polling stations started to close at 1230 GMT (8:30pm, Manila time), though officials said that people already in line would still be allowed to vote.

In Kabul, hit by a series of deadly attacks during the election campaign, hundreds of people lined up in the open air to vote despite heavy rain and the insurgents’ promise of violence.

“I’m not afraid of Taliban threats, we will die one day anyway. I want my vote to be a slap in the face of the Taliban,” housewife Laila Neyazi, 48, told AFP.

Poll security was a major concern following the attacks in Kabul, most recently a suicide bombing on Wednesday, April 2, that killed 6 police officers.

One dead, two wounded

But a fatal blast was reported in Logar province, south of Kabul, where one person was killed and two wounded according to Mohammad Agha district chief Abdul Hameed Hamid.

IEC chief Nuristani said attacks or fear of violence had forced 211 of a total 6,423 voting centers to remain closed.

The day before the poll Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead by a police commander in eastern Khost province.

She was the third journalist working for international media to be killed during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner and Sardar Ahmad of Agence France-Presse.

Interior Minister Omar Daudzai said all 400,000 of Afghanistan’s police, army and intelligence services were being deployed to ensure security around the country.

Afghans have taken over responsibility for security from US-led forces and in 2014 the last of the NATO coalition’s 51,000 combat troops will pull out, leaving local forces to battle the resilient Taliban insurgency without their help.

In the western city of Herat, a queue of several hundred people waited to vote at one polling station, while in Jalalabad in the east, voters stood patiently outside a mosque.

Voters also lined up in Kandahar city, the southern heartland of the Taliban, with some women among the crowd in contrast to the 2009 election when turnout was very low due to poor security.

The country’s third presidential election brings an end to 13 years of rule by Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

No clear favorite

Around 13.5 million people were eligible to vote from an estimated total population of 28 million.

As well as the first round of the presidential election, voters also cast ballots for provincial councils.

The front-runners to succeed Karzai are former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, Abdullah Abdullah – runner up in the 2009 election – and former World Bank academic Ashraf Ghani.

There is no clear favorite and if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first round – preliminary results for which will be announced on April 24 – a run-off is scheduled for late May.

Massive fraud and widespread violence marred Karzai’s re-election in 2009 and a disputed result this time would add to the challenges facing the new president.

Whoever emerges victorious must lead the fight against the Taliban without the help of more NATO troops, and also strengthen an economy reliant on declining aid money.

The election may offer a chance for Afghanistan to improve relations with the United States, its principal donor, after the mercurial Karzai years.

Relations fell to a new low late 2013 when Karzai refused to sign a security agreement that would allow the US to keep around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train local forces and hunt Al-Qaeda. – Rappler.com