TEHRAN, October 27 -Afghan residents in the southern province of Kandahar are casting their ballots in parliamentary elections that were postponed for a week after a Taliban attack killed two top government officials, including a powerful provincial police chief.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Afghan residents in the southern province of Kandahar are casting their ballots in parliamentary elections that were postponed for a week after a Taliban attack killed two top government officials, including a powerful provincial police chief.
Independent Election Commission (IEC) deputy spokesman Aziz Ibrahimi said voting started at 7 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) throughout the southern province on Saturday, with 111 candidates vying for 11 seats in Afghanistan’s 249-seat chamber.
More than 522,000 people have registered to vote at the 173 polling stations across Kandahar, according to the IEC.
Figures by the electoral body show around four million people voted in last weekend's parliamentary elections that were held in 32 out of 34 provinces after months of chaotic preparations.
Provincial authorities said major roads throughout Kandahar were closed nearly 24 hours before polls opened to stop suspicious vehicles and individuals from entering the southern province.
Election Commission officials said 4,500 observers will monitor the election process in Kandahar and 6,000 staff have been hired for the election process.
Elections in Kandahar were postponed after the October 18 killing of General Abdul Raziq, who was credited with repelling successive Taliban attempts to gain a foothold in the province.
Raziq was among three people killed in an insider attack on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar city that was attended by General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
Miller escaped unharmed, but a US general was one of two Americans wounded in the attack.
During two days of voting last weekend, militants launched some 250 attacks across the country, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 100, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
The elections in Afghanistan have been regarded as a major test for the government as the Taliban militants wreak havoc across much of the conflict-ridden country.
Meanwhile, elections have yet to be held in central Ghazni Province, southwest of the capital, which is still reeling from the Taliban’s takeover in August.
Preliminary results of nationwide voting are not expected before mid-November.
Taliban bomb attack kills six in Afghanistan
On Saturday, at least six people were killed and dozens injured in a bomb attack outside a military compound in Afghanistan’s central Wardak Province, south of the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Local reports said the car bomb detonated in the provincial capital of Maidan Shahr as two busloads of police officers and mechanics arrived at the gate to begin their daily work.
Provincial police spokesman Hekmatullah Durrani said six bodies and 31 wounded had been taken to hospitals in the city.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, with spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid saying “tens of Afghan police and soldiers were killed” in the bombing.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The war toppled the militant group; however, some 17 years on, the Taliban are still active in two-thirds of the country and involved in widespread militancy, killing thousands of civilians as well as Afghan and US forces despite the presence of US-led foreign troops.
Source: presstv
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