Kabul, September 18:

Afghans today chose a legislature for the first time in decades, embracing their newly recovered democratic rights and braving threats of terrorist attack to cast votes in schools, tents and mosques. Reports of violence came in from around Afghanistan as it sought to claw its way back from a quarter century of conflict, but there were no immediate signs of a spectacular attack that officials had feared from Taliban militants who vowed to disrupt the vote. A French special forces soldier was killed and another seriously wounded when their vehicle struck a mine in southern Afghanistan, French officials said. Two rockets hit a UN warehouse in the Afghan capital, wounding a local staff member, while fierce fighting erupted in eastern Afghanistan, leaving three militants and two policemen dead and two US troops wounded, officials said.

But today was mostly about getting out to vote and making a difference. Officials predicted a massive turnout despite a Taliban call for a boycott. “We are making history,” President Hamid Karzai said as he cast his ballot. “It’s the day of self-determination for the Afghan people. After 30 years of wars, interventions, occupations and misery, today Afghanistan is moving forward, making an economy, making political institutions.” Some 12.4 million Afghans were registered to vote for the legislature and provincial assemblies at more than 6,000 polling stations, guarded by some 100,000 Afghan police and soldiers and 30,000 foreign troops.

“Today is a magnificent day for Afghanistan,” said Ali Safar, 62, standing in line to vote in Kabul. “We want dignity, we want stability and peace. Thirty years of war and poverty is enough.” Afghans clutching voter identification cards filed into schools with lessons still scrawled on blackboards, or stepped over piles of shoes to cast their votes in mosques. Polling booths were also set up in tents. The Taliban said they would not attack civilians heading to the polls but warned them to stay away from areas where the militants might attack security forces and foreign troops. Top UN envoy Jean Arnault said militants had failed to disrupt polling preparations despite violence during the six months leading up to the vote that killed 1,200 people, including seven candidates and four officials.