Modest Turnout For Afghan Vote

Officials Say Many Were Scared Away By Threats Of Taliban Violence

(CBS/AP) 
Taliban rebels had called an election boycott. Militant attacks killed at least 15 people, including a French commando, in the hours before and during voting — the latest victims of violence that killed more than 1,200 people in the past six months.

But with tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign forces providing security, there were no spectacular assaults. Election officials said no one was killed in attacks near polling stations — although three voters were wounded — and only 16 of the 6,270 stations did not open because of security threats or logistical problems.

The voting for parliament and 34 regional councils was the last formal step toward democracy under an internationally sponsored plan laid out following the ouster of the oppressive Taliban regime by U.S.-led forces in 2001. Many people looked to a big vote to marginalize Taliban rebels whose stubborn insurgency rumbles on in the south and east.

Washington and other governments have poured in billions of dollars trying to foster a civic system that encourages Afghanistan's fractious ethnic groups to work together peacefully and ensure the nation is never again a staging post for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Security was tight as workers brought ballot papers from far-flung polling stations to provincial capitals, where counting was to start Tuesday. Provisional results were expected by early October.

Once final results are posted, it will likely take time to figure out who has the power in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or parliament. There are fears it could be split along the same ethnic and tribal lines that fueled years of war as 1970s coups led to a decade-long Soviet occupation followed by devastating civil war and the Taliban takeover in the 1990s.