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Afghans turn out for first presidential election
| I feel so proud right now. Thank you, President Bush, thank you, Coalition forces, thank you to all the people of good will who have been working towards this day. |
Voting began in Afghanistan Saturday for the first direct presidential election in the country's history, with queues forming at polling stations despite militant threats to violently disrupt the vote. Around 100,000 armed security personnel, including 27,000 foreign troops from a US-led coalition and NATO, have been deployed to protect more than 10 million registered voters. They are selecting a president from a total of 18 candidates, with incumbent President Hamid Karzai widely tipped to win. | Good luck to all the candidates. If you see two guys on a motorcycle, duck. |
| The hell with ducking -- shoot back! |
Queues formed early at polling stations around the country as voters expressed their delight at being allowed to choose their own leader. About 30 people were waiting outside a mosque in the Noman Abn Sadeeq Microrayon district in the capital Kabul when the polls opened. A 50-year-old unemployed man, Hayam Udin, told AFP: "I came here to elect my president on my own. The election marks the end of warlords and wars in my country." | I'm a little misty, here. |
In the southern city of Kandahar, a queue of about 200 voters -- all men except for about seven women -- wrapped themselves in cloaks as they huddled against the cold at the polling station at the governor's residence. "This is the most important day in the history of Afghanistan. Today we have the golden chance to vote that we have been waiting for for so long," said 55-year-old Haji Abdul Salaam.| Freedom. It sure tastes sweet. |
In a part of the country where women remain particularly subservient to men, there were 43 polling booths for males and five for females.| That's five more polling booths than were available to me until well after World War One. |
In the western city of Herat, roughly equal queues of men and women waited to cast their ballots at the Takiy school polling station. "I was so happy I did not sleep," said Gholam Rezah, 55. | The balance of the article snipped for raining on my parade. I want to celebrate. Cheers to a safe and free Afghanistan! |
Posted by: Seafarious 2004-10-09 |
