Security Tight For 1st Afghan Vote

In advance of Afghanistan's first-ever direct presidential election, Muslim clerics urged worshippers to embrace democracy, election workers scurried to ready voting booths and 100,000 troops went on high alert across the country.

After the discovery of a truck laden with 10,000 gallons of gasoline and rigged with anti-tank mines, a nation that has known nothing but war held its breath in hopes that a threat by the Taliban to sabotage Saturday's vote would not materialize.

At the Blue Mosque, the capital's largest house of prayer, Mullah Obeid-ul Rahman told some 400 faithful that Islam and democracy should go hand and hand.

"Saturday you should go and vote. Put your card in the box and say 'God be praised!"' he said. "Give your vote to that person who is a good Muslim and can heal Afghanistan's injured soul."

Interim leader Hamid Karzai is widely expected to win the vote for president against 15 rivals, among them warlords, royalists and even an Islamic poet. But the size of the field could deny Karzai the majority needed to avert a run-off.

Many Afghans preparing to vote have never seen a ballot paper before, and cannot read or write, but CBS News Correspondent Lara Logan reports that didn't stop large groups of nomadic people who live in tents in the nation's mountains from waking up to nine hours to travel to Kabul to learn to vote.

With millions registered to vote, expectations here are high. Perhaps the most powerful symbol of this election is Masouda Jalal — the only female candidate, who's stayed the course in spite of death threats, reports Logan. No one expects her to win but she and other women can vote for the first time ever in Afghan history. And voting means freedom -- especially for women.

"For Afghans who've embraced this process, the election is their first real chance to have a say in their country's future," university student Farima Nawabi told Logan.

Early Friday, a rocket slammed into a parking lot near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, causing no damage or casualties but rattling nerves. Embassy staff were ordered to take cover in an underground bunker and heavily armed troops sealed off the area.

Two rockets exploded in the eastern city of Jalalabad, wounding a young girl and an old man, and eight rockets sailed over the southeastern city of Qalat, landing clear of the city and causing no damage. Three rebels were killed in mountains near the southern city of Kandahar.

The U.S. Embassy, which this week warned American citizens in Afghanistan to be vigilant, issued a separate warning Friday saying it had "received a credible threat" that insurgents planned to try to kidnap U.S. journalists.

By far the greatest threat came from the truck bomb, which officials said was discovered by a sniffer dog that detected anti-tank mines and rockets hidden in the tires.

The truck carried 10,000 gallons of gasoline, said Col. Ishaq Paiman, the Defense Ministry deputy spokesman. He said three Pakistanis who were arrested in the vehicle planned to detonate the truck bomb in Kandahar on Saturday.

"This would have caused hundreds of deaths ... and the electoral process would have been derailed in the area," Paiman said.

Afghans largely brushed off the risk of Taliban attacks.

"In 25 years a lot of rockets have landed. If another one lands because of the election, it's no problem," said Noor Uddin, a 49-year-old Kabul businessman. "Tomorrow is a happy and historic day. That's what is important."

In Kandahar, election officials were making sure the staff knew their roles — instructing them on handing out ballots, how to usher people behind screens to vote, and how to mark thumbs with indelible ink to ensure each man and woman only gets one vote.

One organizer said his nightly dreams are of the elections.

"In some of my dreams everything goes well, but in others all my staff just ignore what I have told them," Rahmatullah Khan said.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers and police, regional militias allied to the government, U.S. troops and international peacekeepers were deployed to protect the vote.

Expectations for the election have been set intentionally low.

Afghans have no experience with democracy, and most say they will vote based on the recommendations of tribal elders. The country of 25 million people is largely illiterate, and voters will have to rely on candidates' photographs and electoral symbols to figure out which box to check.

Both the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have sent observer missions, but neither will pass judgment on the fairness of the process, saying it would not be appropriate to try to hold Afghanistan to international standards. A small U.S. observer team also was monitoring the vote.

Rugged terrain and poorly trained election workers mean partial results may not start coming in until Monday, and a final result could take two weeks. There will be no exit polls.

Afghanistan has lived under many forms of government in the past 30 years — from Pashtun monarchy to Soviet-styled communism, from rule by warlords to repressive Taliban theocracy. Now there are signs that democracy is getting a chance.

Rahman, the Kabul cleric, did not say which presidential hopeful he would pick, but he made clear that the only female candidate, former U.N. worker Massooda Jalal, was not his choice.

"In Islam, it is forbidden for a woman to become president," he told the crowd.

At least one of his listeners disagreed.

"I am voting for Massooda Jalal," said Fazel Rahman, 35. "I have come here to pray. I don't care what the mullah says about politics."