KABUL – More than 130 Afghans were killed or wounded in poll-relatedviolence on Saturday, officials said, as the legislative election turnedchaotic with hundreds of polling centres failing to open and votersqueueing for hours.
Most of the casualties were in Kabul, where at least four people werekilled and 78 wounded in multiple explosions, acting health ministryspokesman Mohibullah Zeer told AFP, after the Taliban warned voters toboycott the ballot “to protect their lives”.
Election organisers, who have been skewered over their shambolicpreparations for the long-delayed ballot, said they would extend votinguntil Sunday for 360 polling centres after hiccups with voter registrationlists and biometric verification devices caused lengthy delays.
Violence also disrupted voting. In the northern city of Kunduz, threepeople died and 39 were wounded, hospital director Marzia Yaftali told AFP,after more than 20 rockets rained down on the provincial capital.
An Independent Election Commission (IEC) employee was killed and sevenothers were missing after the Taliban attacked a polling centre severalkilometres from Kunduz city, destroying ballot boxes, provincial IECdirector Mohammad Rasoul Omar said.
Eight explosions were recorded in the eastern province of Nangarhar, withtwo people killed and five wounded, the provincial governor s spokesmansaid.
Despite the threat of violence, large numbers of voters showed up atpolling centres in major cities where they waited hours for them to open.Turnout in rural districts was not clear.
Most polling sites opened late after teachers employed to handle the votingprocess failed to show up on time, said the IEC, which promised to extendvoting by four hours.
University student Mohammad Alem said he felt “frustrated” after spendingmore than three hours trying to vote in the northern city ofMazar-i-Sharif, only to discover his name was not on the registrationlist. “There also were some problems with the biometric devices becausethey were already running out of charge,” he said.
After waiting four hours at a polling centre, Tabish Forugh tweeted he hadnot seen “even remotely similar… chaos” at previous elections.——————————
*Rockets and bombs*——————————
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Almost nine million people registered to vote in the parliamentaryelection, which is more than three years late. But attacks across thecountry on Saturday are likely to deter many from turning up at the nearly5,000 polling centres.
Hundreds of people were killed or wounded in the months leading up to thepoll. The killing of a powerful police chief in the southern province ofKandahar on Thursday further eroded confidence in the ability of securityforces to protect voters.
Voting in Kandahar has been delayed by a week following the attack.
The Taliban claimed it carried out 318 attacks on voting locations,checkpoints and military sites throughout Saturday.
Despite the risks, President Ashraf Ghani urged “every Aghan, young andold, women and men” to exercise their right to vote, after casting hisballot in Kabul.
Photos posted on social media showed scores of men and women clutchingtheir identification documents lining up outside voting centres amid aheavy security presence.
A woman dressed in a burqa leaving a polling centre in Mazar-i-Sharif toldAFP she had been worried about “security incidents”, but decided to voteanyway.
“We have to defy the violence,” Hafiza, 57, said. “In previous years wewere not happy with the elections, our votes were sold out.” – APP/AFP
