KABUL - Voting in the delayed Wolesi Jirga polls went successfully without any problem in southern Kandahar province on Saturday, officials said.
About 15,000 police personnel are deployed to maintain security for the elections in Kandahar, said security and electoral officials at a joint press conference here.
Najib Danish, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), said voting in the parliamentary elections formally started at 7:00am in the province.
He said the process was underway successfully without any incident of violence as more than 15,000 security forces maintained security of polling stations and war-hit areas.
About 260 policewomen have also been tasked with checking female voters.
According to Danish, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and intelligence operatives in coordination with police have thrown a security blank all around the province.
The voting in Kandahar was delayed for a week after the assassination of former Kandahar Police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq in a Taliban-claimed insider’s attack two days before the Oct 20 polls.
Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy IEC spokesman, said as many as 111 people, including 12 women, have jumped into the electoral fray in Kandahar, where 173 polling stations are set up.
He said a large number of people participated in the voting process as voters waited in long queues in the morning.
Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) spokesman Syed Shah Saqeem said the voting began in Kndahar as deputy governor Abdul Hanan cast his vote in a polling station early in the morning. (Pajhwok)