Times Online | 20 August 2009
By Jeremy Page and Tom Coghlan in Kabul, and Julius Cavendish in Kandahar

Violence forces polls to shut amid low Afghan turnout

The scene of a suicide car bomb attack on an ISAF convoy by the Jalalabad road in Kabul

Taleban attacks across Afghanistan forced the closure of some polling stations today as many nervous Afghans chose not to take part in a presidential election that pitted their faith in democracy against their fears of militant violence.

Reports of violence remained sporadic but there appeared to be a low turn out, with many saying they were too disillusioned or too frightened – especially by a Taleban threat to cut off voters’ index fingers, which are marked with indelible ink.

Voting was uneven throughout Afghanistan depending on the threat of bloodshed but there were fears that sparsely attended polling booths will raise questions over the legitimacy of the result.

Anecdotal reports suggested that voting irregularities may have been widespread.

Election observers and journalists reported vote stuffing in Ghazni and police confiscating ballot boxes in Khost province.

President Karzai — who is favourite to win the election but may be forced into a second round run-off — cast his vote in a boys’ high school near his heavily fortified palace. “I request my dear countrymen to come out and cast their vote to decide their future,” he said, adding that he was not worried about the threat of violence.

The most significant attack came in northern Baghlan province, where militants stormed the town, killing the Baghlan police chief and sparking heavy clashes with security forces. Reports indicated that between 6 and 22 Taleban insurgents were killed but it is not clear whether polling had restarted before the scheduled end of voting.

The head of the country’s Independent Election Commission said officials had been told to find cover but they would reopen the ballot as soon as possible. “We had to tell our people to save your [ballot] boxes and save yourselves,” Azizullah Lodin said.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a mortar attack hit the house of the Provincial Governor, Tooryalai Wesa, at around 3.30am and two rockets hit the city at about 6.30 am, according to local security monitors.

“Yes, rockets have landed,” Mr Wesa told reporters after casting his vote. Witnesses reported hearing two blasts, and local security sources said four people were injured.

Skirmishes were also reported across Kandahar, where streets were largely deserted, and several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found and destroyed outside polling stations, the security monitors said.

More explosions were heard later, and one Taleban commander told The Times by telephone: “The situation will get worse. We are trying our best.”

The Taleban also fired rockets and attacked one polling station in the northern city of Kunduz, the local police chief, Abdul Razaq told The Times. He said no civilians were hurt, but police killed one militant and arrested two others.

There were unconfirmed reports of fighting in Ghazni province depressing turn out, while it appears that, despite a late surge, very few people voted in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

The Taleban warned yesterday that 20 of its suicide bombers had infiltrated Kabul, and other militants were blocking roads across the country to stop people from voting.

There were no signs of such activity today, but many of the country’s 15 million registered voters appeared to be staying away from the roughly 6,500 polling stations during early voting.

Tim Fairbank, an election observer with US-based Democracy International, said that he had visited four polling stations in the eastern city of Jalalabad but only a few hundred people had voted there.

“The polls opened a bit late, but voter turnout seems to be quite low,” he said.

“A lot of people have told us they were afraid to vote, and afraid to have their fingers dipped in ink because of the Taleban’s threats.”

He said that local turnout was expected to be no more than 20-30 per cent, but the government was expected to claim it was more like 60 per cent in the area, which voted overwhelmingly for Mr Karzai at the last presidential election in 2004.

President Karzai, who came to power after US-led forces toppled the Taleban government in 2001, is widely expected to win the second presidential election in Afghanistan’s history despite international disillusion with his government.

He faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from Dr Abdullah Abdullah, his former Foreign Minister, and is expected to fall short of the outright majority needed to secure a victory in the first round.

Analysts say that Mr Karzai’s support could be depressed by low voter turnout in the unstable south, which is dominated by the ethnic Pashtun majority that rallied behind him in 2004. Turnout appeared higher in northern areas where Mr Abdullah is expected to do well.

Many expect Mr Karzai’s own allies to try to compensate for that by stuffing ballot boxes in areas where there are few voters and no election monitors.

US and British officials say there may be some violence and electoral fraud, but not enough to invalidate the vote and undermine their efforts to defeat the Taleban.

About 300,000 Afghan and foreign troops are being deployed for today’s vote, although international forces are keeping away from polling stations to avoid becoming a magnet for Taleban attacks.

The Ministry of Defence announced today that a Chinook helicopter had been forced into an emergency landing in Helmand province last night after a possible Taleban attack. The British crew survived unharmed.

The Afghan government has been trying to negotiate truces with local Taleban commanders who may be reluctant to cause civilian casualties in their own neighbourhoods.

Also:

Candidates in the Afghan Presidential Race
Ballot boxes shut despite troops’ effort