Polls Close in Afghanistan's Long-Delayed Parliamentary Elections

Since the fall of Talibans in 2001, there was a large turn-out of about 9 million voters in Parliamentary polls this year. There are more than 2500 candidates of which 417 are women that are running for the limited 215 seats. There were several explosions throughout the country, and a suicide bomber killed 18 people in the capital Kabul but voters casted their votes despite the violence and threats from Islamic State of Iraq and ISIL. There was a delay in the polling due to violence and break in online systems but the deputy spokesperson for the commission said that this would not be an issue in relaying the final results on time. The Afghan forces had been also vigilant in their duties and hence there were less attacks than what was promised by rebels. Political analysts said that this voting is the right step for the country in spite of the attacks.

- Sangay Chhoki

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/poll-close-afghanistan-long-delayed-parliamentary-elections-181021121134312.html