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Qatar tribune
Aghans voted in presidential elections amid tight security Saturday, even as insurgents attacked polling centers in a series of blasts across the country that left at least one person dead.
The first-round vote marks the culmination of a bloody election campaign that is seen as a close race between President Ashraf Ghani and his bitter rival Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive.
Wary authorities placed an uneasy Kabul under partial lockdown, flooding streets with troops and banning trucks from entering the city in an effort to stop would-be suicide bombers targeting residents as they cast their votes.
By midday, the toll appeared relatively light compared to previous elections, though Afghan national authorities provided little, if any, information about reported blasts.
One person was killed and two others wounded in an explosion near a polling center in Jalalabad in the eastern province of Nangarhar, provincial governor's spokesman Attaullah Khogyani said.
And at least 16 people were wounded in the southern city of Kandahar when a bomb went off at a polling station, a hospital director told AFP, while officials across the country reported several small explosions at other election sites.
Meanwhile, at least one election observer was killed in rocket attacks in Kunduz province, provincial council members Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani and Mawlawi Abdullah confirmed.
Taliban militants began shelling Kunduz city, the capital of the northern province, at 4 am Saturday (2330 GMT Friday), Rabbani said.
The Taliban, who unleashed a string of bombings during the two-month election campaign, claimed to have hit several polling stations.
Officials with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) said they have had no contact with 901 of the 4,942 polling centers across country as voting is under way.
"We sent materials to 4,942 centers, but we received some reports that only 4,041 centers are open, " said Hawa Alam Nuristani, the head of the IEC, in the capital Kabul.
A second IEC official said they have had no contact with 901 polling centers across the country.
It was not clear whether voting had taken place in these 901 centers, or they were forced to shutdown by the Taliban.
Authorities said 431 polling centers will stay closed because it was impossible to guarantee their security since they were either in areas under Taliban control or where insurgents could threaten nearby villages.
Having voted at a high school near the presidential palace in Kabul, Ghani said the most important issue was finding a leader who could bring peace to the war-torn nation.
"Our roadmap (for peace) is ready, I want the people to give us permission and legitimacy so that we pursue peace," Ghani said.
Some 9.6 million Afghans are registered to vote, but many have little faith that after 18 years of war any leader can unify the fractious country and improve basic living conditions, boost the stagnating economy or bolster security.
Still, voters braved insurgent attacks and long queues to cast a ballot.
"I know there are security threats but bombs and attacks have become part of our everyday lives," 55-year-old Mohiuddin, who only gave one name, told AFP.
"I am not afraid, we have to vote if we want to bring changes."
Abdullah and Ghani both claimed victory in the 2014 election -- a vote so tainted by fraud and violence that it led to a constitutional crisis and forced then-U.S. president Barack Obama to push for a compromise that saw Abdullah awarded the subordinate role.
"The only request I have from the election commission is that they ensure the transparency of the election because lots of people have lost their trust," Afghan voter Sunawbar Mirzae, 23, said.

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28/09/2019
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