Taliban fighters tried today to sabotage Afghanistan's first legislative election in decades, but voters still turned out in force for a ballot President Hamid Karzai called a defining moment in the struggle to rebuild.
The Taliban launched more than a two dozen attacks across the south and east and two rockets hit a UN compound near an election centre in Kabul shortly after polls opened, wounding an Afghan UN worker, US military and election officials said.
A French soldier died in a mine blast and two Afghan policemen and three insurgents were killed in a clash near the Pakistani border while a Taliban fighter died in an overnight attack on a polling station before voting started.
But the election commission said voting had been remarkably peaceful.
Chief electoral officer Peter Erben said he believed turnout had been high, despite a slow start, although independent election observers said it appeared fewer had voted than in last year's presidential election, which saw a 70 per cent turnout.
"I see an extremely healthy election taking place around Afghanistan," Mr Erben said. "Security has in general continued to be very good overall, largely due to the security structure in place," he said.
"Where we have had problems, the security forces have acted promptly and gone to resolve it."
A huge security operation was mounted to protect the vote involving 100,000 troops, including about 20,000 from a U.S.-led force and 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers.
About 12.5 million Afghans registered to vote in the U.N.-organised $159 million polls for a lower house of parliament and councils, the first legislative election since 1969, and enthusiasm appeared high.
About 160,000 staff were on duty at more than 6,000 polling stations in some of the most scenic and remote terrain on earth, from the desert in the south to valleys among the snow-capped Hindu Kush mountains in the north.