Scores killed in chaotic Afghanistan ‘elections’

3 Afghan officials killed

KABUL, Oct 20, (Agencies): More than 130 Afghans were killed or wounded in poll-related violence on Saturday, officials said, as the legislative election turned chaotic with hundreds of polling centers failing to open and voters queuing for hours.

Most of the casualties were in Kabul, where at least four people were killed and 78 wounded in multiple explosions, acting health ministry spokesman Mohibullah Zeer told AFP, after the Taleban warned voters to boycott the ballot “to protect their lives”. Election organizers under Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who have been skewered over their shambolic preparations for the long-delayed ballot, said they would extend voting until Sunday for 360 polling centers after hiccups with voter registration lists and biometric verification devices caused lengthy delays.

Violence also disrupted voting. In the northern city of Kunduz, three people died and 39 were wounded, hospital director Marzia Yaftali told AFP, after more than 20 rockets rained down on the provincial capital.

An Independent Election Commission (IEC) employee was killed and seven others were missing after the Taleban attacked a polling center several kilometres from Kunduz city, destroying ballot boxes, provincial IEC director Mohammad Rasoul Omar said.

Eight explosions were recorded in the eastern province of Nangarhar, with two people killed and five wounded, the provincial governor’s spokesman said.

Despite the threat of violence, large numbers of voters showed up at polling centres in major cities where they waited hours for them to open. Turnout in rural districts was not clear.

Ghani

Afghan officers killed, US gen safe:

The top US general in Afghanistan said on Friday he did not believe he was the target of an attack that killed a powerful police chief, and Afghan officials said the gunman may have deliberately avoided hitting him.

The gunman assassinated the police chief of Kandahar province on Thursday along with a top Afghan intelligence agency officer, but the US commander of Afghanistan’s NATO-led force, General Scott Miller, who was standing nearby when the attack occurred, was not hurt.

“My assessment is that I was not the target. It was a very close confined space. But I don’t assess that I was the target,” Miller told Afghanistan’s Tolo News TV in an interview.