Afghan officials hail Kandahar poll

By Paul Anderson
BBC correspondent in Kandahar

Hundreds of Kandahar women came to vote despite threats

Afghan officials are running out of superlatives to describe the election in Kandahar. And the ones they use sound nothing like the superlatives normally associated with the town in the heartland of the Taleban.

"It was like a festival," said the provincial governor, Engineer Yusef Pashtoon.

Two days ago he told me the most likely time for attack by the Taleban was in the days before the vote, because it would scare voters back into their homes. But no attacks - at least against major population centres - ever materialised.

Instead, the images from this dusty and parched town, will be of hundreds of men and women patiently waiting in queues to vote, bracing themselves against the first snap of the coming winter.

We're just so happy to be voting and to be choosing the president who will lead Afghanistan in the future Amina, Kandahar voter

"This moment is the beginning of a new history in Afghanistan, a new chapter," said Palwar, an anthropologist who goes by one name only.

"A few years ago every group was coming to power by killing others, by bloodshed. Now after this election there will be a legal transfer of power."

Women's vote

As he spoke, hundreds of women were pouring into the separate ladies' voting section opposite.

AFGHAN VOTE Eighteen presidential candidates Over 10.5m Afghans registered to vote 41.3% of voters are women Men and women to vote in separate polling stations More than 25,000 polling stations About 5,000 counting centres More than 130,000 polling officials About 740,000 Afghan refugees from Pakistan expected to vote About 600,000 Afghans in Iran eligible to vote Audio gallery: Aid worker

Inside was an ocean of pale blue burqas, the front of them uncovered despite the presence of a male cameraman, reporter, translator and producer. This too, it became evident, was their day and they wanted everyone to see and hear it.

"We are all so delighted to be here," said Amina. "We're just so happy to be voting and to be choosing the president who will lead Afghanistan in the future."

On paper, the Kandahar women's vote won't make much difference to the national count.

Those who registered are a fraction of the national average. They number at best 200,000 and many will have been scared by Taleban intimidation.

However, the resolve of those who did vote was fortified by the post cards circulating in the polling centres - depicting images of the atrocities committed by the Taleban when it was in power: a 13-year-old Taleban recruit parading the severed hands of thieves, the destruction of the ancient statues of Bamiyan, the public beating of women.

The subliminal message: "Lest we forget..."

'Big picture'

The ink problems experienced around the country were a feature of voting in Kandahar.

I watched as a group of three men washed off the thumb markings in full views of us - we filmed them - 20 metres from the ballot boxes where they'd just dropped their papers.

Then they rejoined the queue of voters.

A flaw, agreed Mary Agnes, one of the few international observers watching procedures. But not so grave, she said, as to devalue the big picture.

The big picture is that in Kandahar, of all places in Afghanistan, people truly relished a right they've never enjoyed before - to exercise their own choice.