Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged his people get out and vote in the country's parliamentary elections Saturday, despite Taliban threats to kill anyone who so much as leaves their homes on voting day.
"I hope that all our people in all corners of the country, in any village will go to the polling centres and to vote for their favourite candidate," Karzai said.
The hard-line Islamist insurgents, who ruled Afghanistan until being ousted from power in 2001, have issued the threats in statements to news media, in rumours passed around rural villages and in leaflets or anonymous "night letters" slipped under doors in the cities.
Before polls opened Saturday, a rocket hit the Afghan capital city and three other rockets hit the eastern city of Jalalabad. No casualties were reported.
Earlier, in the eastern province of Khost, police said mosques were blanketed with leaflets overnight promising a violent vote.
"The people of Khost should not go to the voting centres. If anyone goes, we will punish them," said provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Isaqzai, reading from one leaflet.
The same message was issued in letters passed out by the Taliban in Kandahar and other provincial and district capitals.
It's no idle threat, CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer said. She noted that Taliban attacks on election workers and candidates have escalated in recent days, forcing some polling stations to close even before voting begins.
"It's led the independent election commission here to close a number of polling stations because they admitted that they just wouldn't be able to secure them," Mackey Frayer said from Kabul.
"A lot of the candidates were forced to campaign by phone because it was simply too dangerous for them to go to the areas where they're actually running for a seat."
The head of a voting centre in the south was killed Friday evening when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb – one of at least 22 people who have been killed in election-related violence, observers said.
In addition, one candidate and 18 election workers have been kidnapped in the run-up to the vote.
But the Taliban itself appears split on the election, with insurgents in some areas reportedly urging or threatening locals to vote for certain candidates instead of boycotting the election entirely.
Mark Sedwill, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, said the Taliban face a dilemma.
"They talk about the purpose of their insurgency being to get rid of international forces from the country," Sedwill told The Associated Press. "Well, these elections are not about the international forces. These elections are about the Afghans themselves."
About 2,500 candidates are vying for 249 parliamentary seats allocated among the 34 provinces according to population.
Results of the voting for the relatively weak legislature are unlikely to affect Karzai's administration.
However, the elections will be an important test of the health of Afghanistan's fledgling democracy after widespread fraud tainted last year's presidential vote which re-elected Karzai to the presidency.
The U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters in Islamabad Friday that he knows the election -- taking place amid a robust insurgency -- will not be perfect.
"You'll want to look at how much the Taliban are able to disrupt," Holbrooke said.
But Mackey Frayer said election overseers have said that changes instituted since last year's vote should ensure a fair, if not a completely fraud-free election.
"Officials who are attached to the election are very quick and adamant in saying that a lot of changes have been made, precautions have been taken and restrictions have been imposed to try to make this a fair vote," she said.
NATO and Afghan forces have been working all week to secure polling stations in volatile areas.
NATO said Friday that coalition forces detained two insurgents in eastern Khost province, including one who was "actively" planning attacks during the elections.
In the south, NATO reported that two coalition service members died Friday following insurgent attacks. The service members' nationalities was not disclosed.
One Italian coalition member was killed and another wounded by gunfire in the western Herat province, either while still aboard a helicopter or just after disembarking, the Italian Defence Ministry said.
With files from The Associated Press
