Afghanistan goes to the polls

A woman voting in Kabul.

5:47 p.m.: A few more updates...

Abdullah Abdullah said this afternoon that he was happy with the initial results -- but one of his campaign workers says that's not entirely true.

A campaign manger of presidential candidates Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has complained about 'rigging' in presidential elections in southern Ghazni province.

Haji Zaman said election observers were unable to visit any district of the province. "In most districts, there was fraud at the polling centres as all the process pushed forward by government officials," he claimed.

Also, two interesting stories about voting in Garmsir, a Taliban stronghold in central Helmand province. The NYT's Dexter Filkins said observers were encouraged by the strong turnout; Wired's Nathan Hodge says they were surprised by the lack of violence.

A small success story, it seems -- though, as Filkins writes, the issue of turnout is slightly nuanced; it was strong in the town but weak in the countryside, where the Taliban is stronger.

3:38 p.m.: Three updates from Pajhwok:

At three polling stations in Parwan province, Abdullah won a majority of votes. No surprise there, since Parwan has a large Tajik population.
In 7 polling stations in Kapisa and Samangan provinces, Karzai had a weak lead over Abdullah. Both have mixed Tajik/Pahstun populations (Samangan has a sizable Uzbek population, too, which might bode well for Karzai).
Most interesting: Election officials in Herat will not release any vote counts to the media. Herat is majority Tajik.

2:30 p.m.: Abdullah Abdullah says he's happy with the initial results from today's election.

"All citizens are awaiting change and their votes won't go in vain. I'm optimistic the final outcome will be as good as the initial one," remarked the former foreign minister, who hit out at the government for failing to maintain security.

1:44 p.m.: Early reports from a few credible sources: Karzai is polling around 50-58%; second place is divided between Abdullah Abdullah and Ramazan Bashardost.

1:43 p.m.: Terrible story from southern Afghanistan, where a family with six children was among the victims of rockets attacks by the Taliban.

The first incident occurred in Kandahar City, where a rocket hit a home, leaving six girls of a family dead. The attack took place at around 1pm in the Hindu intersection area.

Resident Najiba told Pajhwok Afghan News the rocket launched by Taliban insurgents, who have vowed to disrupt the historic elections, hit the house of a poor man. The site was cordoned off by security personnel, she added.

11:57 a.m.: Another report of voter disenfranchisement, though this one for a different reason. Voters in Khost could not vote, according to Pajhwok, because polling places ran out of ballots. Election workers ordered more, but it's not clear if they've arrived yet.

Gul Rangin, a tribal elder, told Pajhwok Afghan News they were waiting for ballot papers to arrive at the polling station for last several hours. He feared if the papers did not arrive before 4:00pm, they would be deprived of exercising their right to vote.

Rangin warned of launching agitation if they were not provided the ballot papers.

11:49 a.m.: At least 26 people were killed in violence across Afghanistan today, according to Al-Jazeera. Karzai held a press conference and said that "armed groups" conducted a total of 73 attacks in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

Karzai also said the election had "a very good turnout," though initial figures suggest turnout was below 50 percent, according to Al-Jazeera.

11:08 a.m.: The BBC says that some districts in Jalalabad reported no voters at all -- but that turnout was strong in Lashkar Gah, the capital of violent Helmand province.

10:56 a.m.: Pajhwok has some more reports of voting irregularities, this time of ballot-stuffing in favor of Karzai in Jalalabad.

And the Guardian's live blog has some more details on voter intimidation. A student in Kandahar said rocket attacks had a "crippling effect" on turnout and estimated that half as many people voted as in 2004. Same in nearby Uruzgan province, according to a U.N. observer.

9:32 a.m.: A couple of updates from international organizations who are monitoring the elections in Afghanistan.

First, in addition to the ink problems, apparently there were problems with the hole-punching machines designed to punch holes in voter registration cards (another safeguard against double-voting). Officials in Kabul told poll workers to cut the corners of cards using scissors, instead.

Frankly I'm not sure why they didn't just do this in the first place; hole-punching machines? That adds complexity. It's asking for trouble.

Second, reports of sporadic violence in several locations. Rockets in Ghazni (no casualties so far); gun battles outside of Ghazni; explosions and rockets every 20 minutes or so in Kandahar.

9:21 a.m.: I'm going to keep all of our Afghanistan coverage in this thread. If you're looking for news from elsewhere around the region, check the blog rail on the homepage. We'll update here throughout the day with new information.

Quick caveat: Don't expect results today! They will take a while.

Early reports out of Afghanistan today suggest low voter turnout and a handful of attacks around the country, though no major security incidents. The bigger story is that, in many provinces, 25-50% of polling places simply could not open -- or had to close early -- because of security.

In Nuristan province, for example, 2 of 8 districts didn't vote; in Baghlan province, Taliban gunmen stole 25 of 35 ballot boxes. We rounded up an early list of irregularities here.

There are also reports that the indelible ink used to mark the fingers of Afghan voters washes off, raising fears about double-voting.