The Interior Ministry said at
least 11 civilians and four government soldiers were killed and dozens more
injured in the first nationwide balloting since a fraud-marred presidential
election last year undermined international support for President Hamid Karzai.
Security has worsened since then, and the Taleban made good on threats to
disrupt Saturday's polling.
Observers had expected the vote to be far from perfect,
but hoped it would be accepted by the Afghan people as legitimate.
About 2,500 candidates were vying for 249 seats in the
Parliament.
Afghan security officials dismissed the attacks as
“insignificant,” and said they did not hamper voting, adding that 92 percent of
polling stations were open. The Afghan Election Commission Chairman Fazel Ahmad
Manawi declared the elections were “very successful.”
However, there were reports of voting irregularities and
turnout nationwide appeared spotty at best, though the level of violence was
lower than during last year's presidential poll, when more than 30 civilians
and more than a dozen Afghan soldiers were killed.
The Election Commission did not give an overall turnout
figure, but said that 3.6 million people cast ballots at the 86 percent of
polling stations that had reported figures so far. Nearly 6 million ballots
were cast in the presidential vote last year, out of 17 million registered
voters.
Polls officially closed at 4 p.m., but in areas of the
capital with heavy turnout some closed earlier because of a shortage of
ballots, while some others allowed voting past the deadline.
Full preliminary results are not expected until the end
of the month and final results in late October.
Voting irregularities were reported within hours of the
polls opening. Campaign worker Mohammad Hawaid in Kabul complained that the ink
applied to voters' fingers to prevent them from casting multiple ballots was
not working. The ink is supposed to last 72 hours.
“It can be wiped off,” Hawaid said. “This is a major
irregularity.”
In Jalalabad, observers said poll workers were letting
people vote with fake registration cards. “The women coming here have so many
cards that don't have the stamp and are not real cards but still they are
voting,” said Nazreen, a monitor for the Free and Fair Election Foundation of
Afghanistan, which has dispatched observers throughout the country.
