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Polls Close in Afghan General Election
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=F08B8A:3919ACA

Vote seen as last formal step on  path to democracy launched after
hardline Islamic Taleban fell in late 2001





Afghan men wait in line to vote as two children pump water in front of
a polling station in Kabul, Afghanistan

Polls have closed in Afghanistan's first parliamentary election in
more than 30 years, with no reports of major violence.

Election officials said voting had been mostly peaceful, despite
scattered attacks that claimed the lives of eight people, one of them
a French soldier.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was among early voters Sunday in Kabul,
calling the election a





President Hamid Karzai places his ballot for the Afghan parliamentary
election in Kabul turning point in the country's history. The vote is
considered a key test of Afghanistan's ability to establish a
functioning democracy.

Election officials said they believed turnout was high, but that the
number appeared lower than in last October's presidential election.
They said it would take at least two weeks to count the millions of
multi-page ballots.

Nearly 6,000 candidates are competing for the 249 seats in the lower
house of the national assembly, and for the 34 provincial councils.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.


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