Instead of ‘bullets,’ ballots, a rare commodity in Afghanistan’s checkered times gone by.;
Joyous Afghans cast their vote From correspondents in Kandahar, Afghanistan October 10, 2004
JUBILATION reigned today in the former stronghold of Afghanistan's hardline Islamic Taliban regime, as thousands of voters streamed into polling stations in defiance of threats.
"Finally the day has arrived. I am so happy, it's like a dream. I feel that we are finally human," said Zahooba, a toothless old woman of 65 who walked half an hour on shaky legs to the polling station to cast her vote for President Hamid Karzai.
At polling stations around the city, queues of men lined up around the block, as smaller groups of women shrouded in blue, green and violet burquas walked into vote in the country's first presidential election.
Very few female voters were seen in the conservative Pashtun city, with only seven women in one polling site when it opened at 7am in contrast to the 200 men lined up at the neighbouring men's site.
Only around 20 per cent of registered voters in the five southern provinces are women, compared to the national average of over 40 per cent.
Rahgul, a 45-year-old matriarch came with 11 women from her family to cast her vote for Hamid Karzai.
"Our father said we should come early and vote. We are so happy. I can't belive today is the election," she said adding that the men in her family were also voting for Karzai.
She was not worried about attacks or explosions.
"The Taliban warned us but we are not scared. We are Afghans," she added.
Voters were defiant about threats of violence by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime, who pledged to disrupt the election.
"The Taliban made all these threats but we have voted and we are free to go home now," said one old man as he walked out of the polling station in the governor's office in Kandahar's district one.
When asked if he was scared he vehemently denied it saying: "This is our soil, why should we be scared?"
The streets were almost empty of traffic early today, with vehicles needing a special permit to travel, although there were a handful of brightly painted motorcycle taxis ferrying voters to polling sites.
Afghan police stopped a fuel tanker loaded with explosives outside the city gates yesterday, and have closed the city to commercial traffic and prevented cars travelling from district to district.
The border with neighbouring Pakistan is also closed to commercial traffic as arms and militants are known to cross the border into Afghanistan.
However, voters were overwhelmingly enthusiastic, calling polling day the happiest day of their lives and saying that they hoped it would usher in big changes.
"Today we can vote. We change the future of our country and our lives. After decades of war I know that now things will change," said 25-year-old Abdul Haq.
Agence France-Presse |
