Polls close in Afghan elections

18/09/10 14:16 CET

world news

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The polls have closed in Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, with unofficial eyewitness reports suggesting a lower than hoped for turnout.

President Hamid Karzai was among those to cast his vote in the capital Kabul, as did opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, but the election was marred by rocket attacks on polling stations that killed at least 11 people.

386 women are among the 2447 candidates for a seat in the lower house of the Afghan parliament and a high turnout would have been taken as a sign of suport from the population for a democracy that’s struggling to take hold in face of external opposition from the taliban movement and internal problems with corruption.

Preliminary results from the poll are not expected before early October.

More about: Hamid Karzai, Taliban

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