Polling begins in Afghanistan under Taliban threat

Kabul : Under the shadow of Taliban violence and a rocket attack in capital city Kabul, polling began in Afghanistan on Saturday for its parliamentary elections, an exercise seen vital for the United States to decide on its policy on the war-ravaged country and troops withdrawal.

The vote is the second parliamentary election since the Taliban regime was overthrown by the United States in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.

House of People (Wolesi Jirga) 249 members are elected by single non-transferable vote to serve 5-year terms in Afghanistan.

About 2,500 candidates are fighting the polls amid intimidation by the Taliban. The polling day began with rocket attacks into the Afghan capital around 4 am.

The rocket hit a car parking zone near the state-run Radio Television of Afghanistan in Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul at dawn but there is no report of any casualty.

Missiles also landed areas in Jalalabad city during the morning.

Earlier on Friday, President Hamid Karzai urged the people of Afghanistan to vote in the elections for peace and stability.

“There will be problems, irregularities and allegations, but we have to try our best under the circumstances Afghanistan is passing through to the make vote a success,” Karzai told a a press conference at the Presidential Palace here.

There were violent incidents preceding the polling. On Friday, nine people were in a roadside blast.

Reports said the nine victims, including women and children, were traveling on a horse-drawn cart in Balkh province.

The Talibans also kidnapped 18 people working on Saturday’s voting in northwestern Afghanistan, a local government spokesman said Friday.

On Wednesday, Talibans had killed two election workers.

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said there are 52,000 troopers, including policemen, deployed during the polling besides Afghanistan’s NATO-led International Security Assistance Force