Afghan elections hailed despite turnout

AS trucks, helicopters and donkeys carried ballots to counting centres across Afghanistan yesterday, evidence that turnout was sharply lower than in last year’s presidential vote undermined celebrations of the polling as a key step toward stability.

Afghan and international officials hailed yesterday's elections as a major success, but chief electoral officer Peter Erben said turnout appeared to be just over 50%, based on reports from about one-third of polling stations.

Barring a big increase, this would be significantly lower than the 70% for Hamid Karzai's victory in last October's euphoric presidential election. More than 8 million people voted then, even though the number of registered voters was lower than the 12.4 million eligible to cast ballots for the first new legislature in more than three decades.