Relief in Afghanistan after largely peaceful landmark election

 

AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus laughs as she attends a swimming event at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, August 21, 2004. Niedringhaus, a veteran Associated Press photographer who had covered wars around the world was shot dead and another reporter was wounded on April 4, 2014 when an Afghan policeman opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan, the news agency said. Picture taken August 21, 2004. [Photo/Agencies]

Journalists shot

Afghans begin voting in presidential election

Ballot boxes on donkeys in Afghanistan

On Friday, veteran Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was killed and senior correspondent Kathy Gannon, 60, was wounded when a policeman opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan as they reported on preparations for the poll.

Gannon has been hospitalized in Kabul and is in stable condition.

The National Directorate of Security intelligence agency said it had arrested a man and seized a cache of rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and police uniforms from a house in Kabul hours before the election began.

In Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, the mood was tense. Vehicles were not allowed to move on the roads and checkpoints were set up at every intersection.

Hamida, a 20-year-old teacher working at a Kandahar polling station, said more than a dozen women turned up in the first two hours of voting and that she expected more to come despite the threat of a Taliban attack.

"We are trying not to think about it, but it's a bit of a concern," she said, only her eyes visible through her black veil.

Risk of delayed result

Most people expect the election will be better run than the 2009 vote, which handed Karzai a second term amid massive fraud and ballot stuffing.

The Interior Ministry said two officials were detained on Saturday for trying to rig the vote, and elsewhere several people were arrested for trying to use fake voter cards.

Even if the election is less flawed than 2009, it could take months - perhaps even until October - for a winner to be declared at a time when the country desperately needs a leader to stem rising violence as foreign troops prepare to withdraw.

If no one candidate wins over 50 percent, the two with the most votes will go into a runoff on May 28, spinning out the process into the holy month of Ramadan, when life slows to a crawl.

A long delay would leave little time to complete a pact between Kabul and Washington to keep up to 10,000 US troops in the country beyond 2014, after the bulk of the US force, which currently stands at around 23,500, has pulled out.

Karzai has rejected the agreement, but the three frontrunners to succeed him have pledged to sign it.