Turnout appears low as Afghans vote for president
SLIDESHOW
Election workers carry ballot boxes to a polling
station at the Friday Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19,
2009. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect a new
president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
An election worker sorts out election materials at
the Friday Mosque which is to be used as a polling station in Herat,
Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls
on Aug. 20 to elect a new president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
An Afghan man feeds pigeons at the Shrine of
Hazrat Ali in Mazar-I-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, Afghanistan,
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy)
(Farzana Wahidy - AP)
Afghan women feed pigeons at the Shrine of Hazrat
Ali in Mazar-I-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Wednesday,
Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy)
(Farzana Wahidy - AP)
An election worker tallies polling materials at
the Friday Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009.
Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect the new president.
(AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
An election worker sorts out election materials at
the Friday Mosque which is to be used as a polling station in Herat,
Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls
on Aug. 20 to elect a new president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
Election workers carry ballot boxes to a polling
station at the Friday Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19,
2009. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect a new
president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
Afghan police carry the bodies of three suspected
insurgents in the back of a truck after they were killed in a gunfight
in Kabul, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Gunfire and explosions reverberated
through the heart of the Afghan capital Wednesday on the eve of the
presidential election after three militants with AK-47s rifles and hand
grenades overran a bank. Police stormed the building and killed the
three insurgents, officials said. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(Kevin Frayer - AP)
People watch as policemen carry away a bomb after
it was discovered on a street in Herat, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug.
19, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect the new
president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
A policeman carries a gas cylinder that was
attached to a bomb after it was discovered on a street in Herat,
Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls
on Aug. 20 to elect the new president. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
(Saurabh Das - AP)
An Afghan counter-terrorism officer stands guard
in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 outside a bank where
gun battles broke out between Afghan forces and three militants with
AK-47 rifles and hand grenades who overran the bank. Police stormed the
building and killed the three insurgents. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
An Afghan boy looks out from a building, a day
before the presidential election, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday,
Aug. 19, 2009 as U.S. troops patrol in the area. (AP Photo/Rafiq
Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
An Afghan man and boy look out form their window
as an Afghan counter-terrorism officer stands guard in Kabul,
Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 where gun battles broke out
between Afghan forces and three militants with AK-47 rifles and hand
grenades who overran a bank. Police stormed the building and killed the
three insurgents. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
An Afghan police officer throws a disabled man to
the ground as journalists look on as they are forced to leave an area
of a gunbattle with suspected insurgents in Kabul, Wednesday, Aug. 19,
2009. Afghan authorities have come under criticism for preventing
coverage of violent events in the country a day before presidential
elections. Gunfire and explosions reverberated through the heart of the
Afghan capital Wednesday on the eve of the presidential election after
three militants with AK-47s rifles and hand grenades overran a bank.
Police stormed the building and killed the three insurgents, officials
said. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(Kevin Frayer - AP)
Afghans have breakfast along a wall covered with
election campaign posters in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday,
Aug. 19, 2009, on the eve of the presidential elections. (AP
Photo/David Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
Afghan people pass by a wall of election campaign
posters in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009, on
the eve of the presidential elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
Afghan police guard a security checkpoint made
from a pile of rocks in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug.
19, 2009, on the eve of the presidential elections. (AP Photo/David
Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
An Afghan soldier gestures to drivers at a check
post in city of Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan on
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Afghans are on the eve of going to the polls
to elect a new president for the second time in the country's history.
(AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
(Musadeq Sadeq - AP)
An Afghan police stands guard in front of
presidential election posters on the street in Kabul, Wednesday, Aug.
19, 2009. Later, gunfire and explosions reverberated through the heart
of the Afghan capital Wednesday on the eve of the presidential election
after three militants with AK-47s rifles and hand grenades overran a
bank. Police stormed the building and killed the three insurgents,
officials said. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(Kevin Frayer - AP)
Afghan police ride in a truck past a crowd that
gathered near the scene of a gunbattle with suspected insurgents in
Kabul, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. Gunfire and explosions reverberated
through the heart of the Afghan capital Wednesday on the eve of the
presidential election after three militants with AK-47s rifles and hand
grenades overran a bank. Police stormed the building and killed the
three insurgents, officials said. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(Kevin Frayer - AP)
Afghan counter-terrorism soldiers drag the dead
body of a militant down the stairs of a bank in Kabul, Afghanistan,
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 after gun battles broke out between Afghan
forces and three militants with AK-47 rifles and hand grenades who
overran a bank. Police stormed the building and killed the three
insurgents, officials said. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
A helicopter lands to remove wounded soldiers of
the U.S. Army's Apache Company, 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment,
part of the 3rd Combat Brigade 10th Mountain Division based out of Fort
Drum, N.Y., after their armored vehicle was hit by an improvised
explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province,
Wednesday Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
(David Goldman - AP)
Donkeys loaded with election supplies head to a
rural polling station in Sighawar in Afghanistan's mountainous Panjshir
Province, located about 113 km (70 miles) north of Kabul,Wdnesday, Aug.
19, 2009. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect the new
president for the second time in the country's history. (AP Photo/Dima
Gavrysh)
(Dima Gavrysh - AP)
Afghan voters line up to cast their ballots as an
Afghan election official hangs an election information banner over the
entrance of a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday
Aug. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
Afghan President and incumbent in presidential
elections Hamid Karzai speaks to the media during Independence Day
celebrations at the Defence Ministry compound in Kabul, Wednesday, Aug.
19, 2009. Afghans will go to the polls to vote for a new president
Thursday. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini,Pool)
(Massoud Hossaini - AP)
Afghan presidential candidate and current
President Hamid Karzai shows his ink-stained finger after voting in the
presidential election at a polling station in Kabul, Afghanistan,
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Thousands of polling centers across
Afghanistan opened for voting Thursday, and millions of Afghans were
expected to choose a new president to lead a nation plagued by armed
insurgency, drugs, corruption and a feeble government. (AP Photo/Rafiq
Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
Afghan women voters line up to cast their ballots
at a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday Aug. 20,
2009. Afghans voted under the shadow of Taliban threats of violence
Thursday to choose their next president for a nation plagued by armed
insurgency, drugs, corruption and a feeble government nearly eight
years after the U.S.-led invasion. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
Afghan presidential candidate and current
President Hamid Karzai walks away after casting his vote at a polling
station in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Thousands of
polling centers across Afghanistan opened for voting Thursday, and
millions of Afghans were expected to choose a new president to lead a
nation plagued by armed insurgency, drugs, corruption and a feeble
government. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
(Rafiq Maqbool - AP)
An Afghan woman voter walks past male voters
lining up to cast their ballots, as she heads towards the women's side
of a mosque made into a polling station in Kabul on Thursday Aug. 20,
2009. Afghans voted under the shadow of Taliban threats of violence
Thursday to choose their next president for a nation plagued by armed
insurgency, drugs, corruption and a feeble government nearly eight
years after the U.S.-led invasion. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
(David Guttenfelder - AP)
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By JASON STRAZIUSO and ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 20, 2009; 2:33 AM
KABUL -- Taliban threats kept voter turnout low in the capital and the militant south Thursday as Afghans chose the next president for their deeply troubled country. Militants launched scattered rocket and bomb attacks but no major assaults.
Turnout, particularly in the violent south, will be key to the vote's success in the country's second direct presidential election. Taliban militants have pledged to disrupt the vote and circulated threats that those who cast ballots will be punished.
International officials have predicted an imperfect election, but expressed hope that Afghans would accept it as legitimate - a key component of President Barack Obama's war strategy.
An Associated Press reporter who visited six polling centers in Kabul said he saw no lines at any of them. An AP reporter in Kandahar, the south's largest city and the Taliban spiritual birthplace, also said he saw few voters.
Scattered reports of violence trickled in from around the country, including a rocket that landed near voters in Helmand and an explosion at a voting site in Kabul. Security companies in the capital reported at least five blasts.
President Hamid Karzai, dressed in his traditional purple and green striped robe, voted at 7 a.m. at a Kabul high school. He dipped his index finger in indelible ink - a fraud prevention measure - and held it up for the cameras.
"I request that the Afghan people come out and vote, so through their ballot Afghanistan will be more secure, more peaceful," Karzai said. "Vote. No violence."
Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban was ousted in late 2001 by a U.S.-led invasion, is favored to finish first among 36 official candidates, although a late surge by former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah could force a runoff if no one wins more than 50 percent.
Preliminary results were expected to be announced in Kabul on Saturday.
U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said there were no early reports of widespread irregularities, though there had been a number of attacks in the south and east. However, presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost, who had 10 percent support in pre-election polls, said he washed off the ink that is supposed to prevent double voting and called on authorities to "immediately stop this election."
"This is not an election, this is a comedy," Bashardost said.
Militants carried out a string of minor assaults in the early hours.
