Kandahar Residents Vote a Week After Deadly Attack Forced Delay

Tight security measures were being taken on Saturday in southern Kandahar as voters cast their ballots in parliamentary elections that were delayed in the province for a week after a deadly attack which killed two senior government officials including General Abdul Raziq.

The Interior Ministry Spokesman Najib Danish told Ariana News on Saturday that more than six thousand police forces including 220 policewomen have been deployed for the security of polling centers in the province.

According to the election commission, about 172 voting stations were opened today for the people to cast their ballot in Kandahar.  

“Elections in Kandahar went well and we had taken necessary measures for the process,” said Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi, the deputy spokesman of the election commission.

The parliamentary elections in Kandahar were expected to take place last week but the deadly shooting in the province – which left the provincial police chief General Raziq and intelligence chief Momin Hussainkhail killed – forced the election commission to delay the process.

This comes as the electoral complaints commission has said that it registered more than 11,000 complaints regarding elections which took place on Saturday last week in 32 provinces except for Kandahar and Ghazni.