Afghan voter turnout low, officials say

Widespread deadly violence predicted to mar Afghanistan's presidential election on Thursday failed to materialize but fear of Taliban attacks may have led to a low turnout in some areas.

While millions went to the polls, Zekria Barakzai, a top election official, told The Associated Press he thinks 40 to 50 per cent of the country's 15 million registered voters cast ballots — a turnout that would be far lower than the 70 per cent who cast ballots for president in 2004.

Yet Barakzai said 6,202 polling centres were opened — 95 per cent of those planned.

Earlier, Toryalai Ghaznavi, a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission in Kandahar, had said voter turnout would be lower than expected.

But as the day wore on, Ghaznavi estimated 60 per cent of the registered voters in Kandahar province went to the polls, which stayed open late where necessary.

An increase in violence in the days leading to the election appeared to deter many voters from going to polling stations.

There were reports of scattered attacks throughout the country as the Taliban followed through with threats to disrupt Thursday's election of a new president and provincial councils.

In some cases, suicide bombers were stopped.

26 die in election day violence

As the polls closed Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said there had been 73 attacks in 15 provinces.

Officials said most of the attacks — which included rockets, gun battles, insurgents shutting down polling stations and suicide bombers that killed at least 26 people — were minor.

Brig.-Gen Jonathan Vance, the commander of Canada's Task Force Kandahar, said election day was an "utter failure" for the insurgents.

"As anticipated, the insurgency did attempt to disrupt the election. They were unsuccessful across the board," he said.

Voter turnout seems to have been especially good in the north, the east and the capital, said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN mission in Kabul.

About 300,000 soldiers from NATO and the Afghan army were deployed around the country to protect voters and thousands of polling stations.

Trickle of voters

CBC correspondent Susan Ormiston visited several polling stations in Kabul and reported the turnout appeared to be very sparse.

"There have been no lineups at voting stations at all," Ormiston said.

Reports from officials and witnesses indicate only a trickle of voters arrived at polling stations in the capital of Kabul and the south, which is a stronghold for the Taliban.

Earlier Thursday, Abdul Rahman told The Associated Press he wanted to vote but was waiting until later in the day to see how secure the polling stations were.

"If anything happens to the polling centre, we don't want to be too close to it," he said. The polls in Afghanistan had stayed open an extra hour, until 5 p.m. Kabul time, to accommodate last-minute voters when officials reported there had been a slight rise in the number of voters during the afternoon.

Counting has begun and preliminary results and information regarding any election complaints or voting irregularities are expected to begin to be released on Saturday.

Official results are not expected until Sept. 17.

'Matter of concern'

"If turnout is sharply down, that would be a matter of concern," said former Canadian foreign affairs minister John Manley, who served as an election observer.

Analysts have said that a low voter turnout could throw the results of the election into question.

Officials believe a strong turnout is essential for the new Afghan president to have legitimacy to tackle the challenges facing the nation, including the insurgency, political divisions, ethnic tension, unemployment and corruption.

The country's challenges have not been adequately addressed by the government, many Afghans told reporters.

"I am not voting. It won't change anything in our country," Mohammad Tahir told The Associated Press.

Karzai, who is seeking a second five-year term as president, faces 36 candidates. His main rival is considered to be Abdullah Abdullah, his former foreign minister.

If none of the candidates garnered at least 50 per cent of the vote, a run-off will be held between the top two candidates.

A low turnout in the south, where the country's ethnic majority Pashtuns live, could especially harm the outcome for Karzai, who is himself a Pashtun while a stronger voter turnout in the north will likely be beneficial to Abdullah, analysts have said.