In this handout photograph taken and released by Press Office of President of Afghanistan on September 28, 2019, Afghan First Lady Rula Ghani (R), wife of Afghan President and candidate Ashraf Ghani, looks on as she casts her vote at a polling station in Kabul. - Insurgents worked to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential election on September 28, with a series of blasts reported across the country as voters headed to the polls and troops flooded the streets of the capital. (Photo by Handout / Press Office of President of Afghanistan / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / PRESS OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

KABUL: Afghans
braved the threat of militant attacks and delays at polling booths to vote in a
presidential election yesterday, a major test of the Western-backed
government's ability to protect democracy against Taleban attempts to derail
it. The election was marred by numerous small-scale Taleban attacks, but only
one confirmed death. Turnout was low, however, with the violence - plus earlier
Taleban threats against polling stations - likely contributing factors. Voting
was extended by two hours, as the start of polling was delayed around the
country with stations failing to open on time amid technical problems.

Independent
election observers and activists said a slow pace to voting triggered confusion
at some polling stations, with long queues forming outside. "It took the
first voter 31 minutes to vote. For subsequent voters it was taking around five
minutes and then it started to streamline to 3 minutes and 30 seconds,"
said Nishank Motwani, an observer stationed in Kabul. "Election commission
staff looked panicked and voters were getting angry that the queue was not
moving."

Taleban
intervention?

Some observers
feared the Taleban had forced a partial shutdown to upset the final results as
the Independent Election Commission's (IEC), without giving a reason, said it
had failed to establish contact with 901 of the 4,942 polling centers. The
hardline Islamist group, which controls more of the country than at any time
since its regime fell in 2001, has warned the more than 9 million registered
voters to stay at home or face dire consequences.

Yesterday's
presidential vote is the fourth since the Taleban were toppled. A dozen
candidates are vying for the presidency, led by incumbent Ashraf Ghani and his
former deputy Abdullah Abdullah. Due to logistical difficulties, results will
not be known until Nov 7. The winner will play a crucial role in the country's
quest to end the war with the Taleban and any resumption of talks between them
and the United States that were called off this month. To protect voters and
polling stations, tens of thousands of troops were deployed.

Abdul Moqim
Abdulrahimzai, director-general of operations and planning at the Interior
Ministry, said at least 21 civilians and two Afghan forces were injured in
about a dozen small-scale attacks during the first hours of voting. Other
attacks had been foiled, he said. A senior Western security official in Kabul
said the Taleban had not conducted large-scale attacks but had scared some
voters away. Early turnout was "very poor", said the Transparent
Election Foundation of Afghanistan, also citing as a reason the requirement for
voters to be photographed, to which female voters in conservative areas
objected.

Others were determined
to vote. "Bravado gets defined when one musters courage to cast ones
vote," said Kabul doctor Roya Jahangir (after casting his ballot?).
"We hope this time there is no fraud." Hundreds of voters complained
their names were missing from voters' lists or the biometric devices used to
prevent fraud. Addressing those concerns, the IEC eased restrictions, allowing
anyone with election stickers on their national identity cards to vote.

Polling stations
attacked

Small-scale
Taleban attacks took place across the country. An explosion at a polling
station in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar wounded 16 people,
according to a security source. In the northern province of Faryab, Afghan
forces clashed with Taleban fighters in six districts, forcing people to stay
indoors and refrain from voting. The Taleban said their fighters attacked
polling stations in Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan. Officials said
four explosions in the eastern city of Jalalabad, in which one person was
killed, disrupted voting at some stations.

Blasts also hit
Kabul and Ghazni, officials said, while more than 400 polling centers remained
closed because they were in areas under Taleban control. Western diplomats said
the scale of the Islamist militant group's election attacks would determine
whether talks with Washington resumed. "Talks can only begin if the
Taleban exercises restraint and allows people to vote," said one diplomat
overseeing the elections.

Ghani cast his
ballot in a Kabul high school, telling reporters: "I thank God that today
that people's vote will help the republic of Afghanistan to move forward."
Abdullah voted at a different Kabul school. "The threats to innocent
people do not show the strength of the Taleban," he said. Both men came to
power in 2014 after a bitterly contested election marred by fraud.
Afghanistan's political scene is still tainted by the aftermath of that vote,
which forced the two main rival groupings to form an unstable partnership. Both
sides were accused of massive electoral cheating. - Reuters