Voting concludes for Afghan presidential election

The polling for Afghanistan's one-day presidential election concluded on Saturday evening, Chairperson of Independent Election Commission (IEC) Hawa Alam Nuristani said.

An Afghan man casts his ballot at a polling station during the presidential elections, in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 28, 2019. [Photo: IC]

"The polling time, which began 7:00 a.m. (local time), ended at 5:00 p.m. in all polling centers across the country," Nuristani told reporters.

She said election was relatively peaceful despite some attacks and complaints of irregularities and allegations of fraud.

Nuristani noted that the IEC will take note of allegation of fraud and all those allegations will be looked into.

The Taliban insurgent group fighting the government has vowed to disrupt the election process. They launched several attacks in one dozen of the country's 34 provinces.

It is the fourth presidential election in Afghanistan since 2001, when the Taliban regime was ousted.

A total of 18 contesters were registered for the presidency with a five-year term and among the candidates are sitting President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. However, four candidates have withdrawn from the race in favor of one candidate.

Over 9.4 million eligible voters, 35 percent of them women, were registered to cast their votes during Saturday's polling.

Details about the election turnout were not immediately available as election officials stated that the number of turnout will be released within days after the poll.

Preliminary results of the poll will be announced on Oct. 19 and the final results are expected on Nov. 7.

Under the Afghan law, official results cannot be announced until serious complaints are adjudicated.

If none of the candidates win over 50 percent of votes in the first round, the two front-runners will enter a runoff slated for late November.