KABUL: Afghans voted Thursday to elect a president for the second time in history as fears emerged of weak turnout despite only sporadic violence from Taliban insurgents bent on sabotaging the ballot.
Insurgents stormed a small northern town, sparking deadly clashes that prevented voting, and security fears depressed turnout in Taliban strongholds of the south.
But NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the elections overall were encouraging , as Afghan officials granted people still queuing extra time to vote after polls officially closed.
Western-backed President Hamid Karzai earlier urged Afghans to exercise their democratic rights in a nation still beset by a bloody insurgency eight years after the 2001 US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban.
I request my dear countrymen to come out and cast their vote to decide their future, Karzai said as he cast his ballot in a Kabul boys school near his heavily fortified palace, dismissing fears of unrest.
Minor attacks were reported elsewhere, including in Kandahar in the south, which was the capital of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, but cautiously optimistic Afghan and UN officials said violence could have been far worse.
The kind of spectacular attacks that we were warned about have not happened. The day is still not over but I must say I am pleased to see that so far the elections have been going on quite well, said UN envoy Kai Eide.
The turnout is very good, said deputy chief electoral officer Zekria Barakzai about halfway through voting.
But independent observers said voter participation appeared low. One Western diplomat told AFP: Turnout (in Kandahar) is definitely very, very low, significantly lower than in the north.
I have driven around the city (Kabul) and the situation is varying from time to time, but I have seen no queues and it is definitely very quiet, much quieter than in 2004, he added, referring to the last presidential election.
Karzai hopes to win an outright majority to avoid a run-off, but his nervous government ordered a blackout on reporting violence during polling day, threatening journalists with heavy penalties.
An energetic campaign by ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who has a northern powerbase and draws on ethnic Tajik support, has boosted the chance of a run-off, which would take place in around six weeks time.
Abdullah hailed a day of change as he voted alongside his wife and young son amid a throng of journalists and phalanx of security men.
In the northern town of Baghlan, Taliban insurgents launched a multi-pronged assault that sparked heavy clashes, killing up to 22 insurgents and preventing voting, police said.
Terrorists attacked from several directions. Fighting has been going on since morning, provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi told AFP.
Now, as we speak, the enemy has been pushed back. We have killed 22 terrorists. Most of their bodies are left on the ground, he said.
But Abdul Majeed Azimi, head of the provincial intelligence agency, said only eight were killed in Baghlan.
In the capital, a two-hour shootout between insurgents and Afghan security forces killed two insurgents in an attack claimed by the Taliban.
I don t care about the Taliban and their threats. Who do they think they are? We have a government, police, army, the infrastructure of a functioning state. The Taliban are all talk, said 27-year-old Ramin after voting in Kabul.
Pre-election violence stoked fears about whether it would prove safe to vote despite thousands of US and NATO troops stepping up anti-insurgency assaults.
Western officials played down expectations of perfectly free and fair elections over reports of vote-buying and Karzai s reliance on warlords, but said an estimated quarter of a million observers would guard against abuses.
Voting centres closed officially at 4:00 pm (1130 GMT), guarded by a huge deployment of 300,000 Afghan and foreign forces. But the election commission said people still in queues would be allowed to cast ballots.
Thursday marked only Afghanistan s second direct presidential election, in a crucial test of a system designed to promote political stability and hasten economic development in one of the world s most lawless nations.
Seventeen million Afghans registered to elect a president and 420 councillors in 34 provinces across the largely rural and impoverished country.
It is a difficult process in a nation where more than 70 percent of people are illiterate, and bound into fierce tribal and religious allegiances.
