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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Afghan polls close; counting begins
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-20 23:15

Afghan polls close; counting begins
Afghan policemen carry the bodies of two gunmen killed after a shootout in Kabul August 20, 2009. [Agencies]

The top U.N. official in the country, Kai Eide, acknowledged scattered attacks but said the election "seems to be working well." A U.N. spokesman said there were no early reports of widespread irregularities, though ahead of the vote, the country had been buzzing with rumors of ballot-stuffing, bogus registrations and trafficking in registration cards on behalf of Karzai, allegations his campaign has denied.

Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost, who had 10 percent support in pre-election polls, said he washed off the supposedly indelible ink and called on authorities to "immediately stop this election."

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"This is not an election, this is a comedy," Bashardost said.

Azizullah Lodin, chairman of the Independent Election Commission, denied there were widespread problems with the ink but said officials would investigate.

Militants carried out a string of assaults around the country. In northern Baghlan province, insurgent attacks closed 14 polling sites, and the police chief of Old Baghlan city and several police were killed, said Abdul Malik, the provincial election director.

An AP reporter in southern Helmand province said more than 20 rockets had landed in the capital of Lashkar Gah, including one near a line of voters that killed a child.

A blast at a high school in Kabul serving as a polling center wounded an election monitor and briefly shut down voting, an election observer named Ezatullah said. Abdullah Azizi, a 40-year-old teacher, said he was at Abdul Hai Habibi school when the explosion occurred.

"We don't care about these blasts," Azizi said after voting reopened. "The women were afraid when they heard the explosion, but now I'm going to tell them come here."

Because of Foreign Ministry order that asked news organizations to avoid "broadcasting any incidence of violence" during voting, Afghan officials were reluctant to confirm violence.

At a high school in eastern Kabul, election workers were ready at 7 a.m., but no one was there.

In the Helmand province town of Dahaneh -- a former Taliban stronghold until US troops invaded this month -- US Marines delivered presidential ballots in two helicopters just after noon.

Voter turnout in the insurgency-plagued Pashtun south is not only crucial to Karzai's chances but also to public acceptance of the results. Karzai is widely expected to run strong among his fellow Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group that also forms the overwhelming majority of the Taliban.

Karzai has sought to ensure his re-election by striking alliances with regional power brokers, naming as a running mate a Tajik strongman and welcoming home notorious Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Abdullah, who is part Tajik, is expected to win much of his votes in the Tajik north, where security is better.

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