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Election officials in Afghanistan say millions of people cast their
votes for members of a new National Assembly and local councils. Despite
several bloody attacks across the country, election organizers say voting
went smoothly in most places.
The United Nations chief election officer, Peter Erben, told reporters
security concerns kept a handful of voting centers scattered around the
country from opening.
But he told reporters before polls closed, the insurgent attacks, which
included a rocket fired onto the U.N. compound, failed to disrupt the
elections.
"We are open for polling in all districts
of the country. The issues we have with opening a few polling centers
is really the exception to the general situation of being open
everywhere."
More than 6,000 candidates, including nearly 600 women, competed for
seats on the country's new National Assembly and 34 district councils.
Election organizers say it will take at least two
weeks to count the millions of multi-page ballots
.
The election is considered a key test of Afghanistan's ability to
establish a functioning democracy.
After decades of war andauthoritarian
rule , people here say they
welcomed the opportunity to select their own representatives.
Outside a crowded polling station in central Kabul, voters displayed
their index fingers, dyed a deep purple to show they cast their ballots.
Forty-four-year-old Mohammad Sadiq told VOA, the election was a proud
day for Afghanistan.
After more than 25 years, he says, the government here will serve the
people, and not the other way around.
But questions remain regarding how rapidly the country will be able to
evolve into a modern democracy.
More than half the population is illiterate, and many parts of the
country are divided along ethnic and tribal lines.
Another potential problem is the candidates themselves, some of whom
are former warlords or alleged surrogates for Afghanistan's powerful drug
cartels. But election organizers say they remain confident the country is
ready for the challenges of self-government.
President Hamid Karzai, after he voted Sunday afternoon, said the
election was a turning point in Afghanistan's history.
After 30-years of war, interventions, occupation and misery, he said,
Sunday was a day of self-determination. | 
