KABUL: Taleban threats scared voters and dampened turnout in the militant south on Thursday as Afghans voted for president for the second time ever. Insurgents killed 26 people in scattered attacks, but officials said militants failed to disrupt the vote.
After 10 hours of voting, including a last-minute, one-hour extension, election workers began to count millions of ballots. Initial results are not expected for several days.
A top election official told The Associated Press he thinks 40 to 50 percent of the country’s 15 million registered voters cast ballots — a turnout that would be far lower than the 70 percent who cast ballots for president in 2004.
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 Abdullah.
A voting official in Kandahar, the south’s largest city and the Taleban’s birthplace, said voting appeared to be 40 percent lower than 2004. Associated Press journalists reported low turnouts in Kabul compared with longer lines seen in the 2004 vote.
“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.”
After polls closed, Karzai complimented Afghans for having the courage to vote and brushed aside questions about turnout.
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,” Karzai said.
