KABUL, Sept 19: Early estimates showed a turnout of just over 50 per cent in Afghanistan’s first parliamentary polls in more than three decades, below that of last year’s presidential vote, the election chief said on Monday.

With closing reports in from around 35 per cent of polling stations, ‘the turnout appears to be just over 50 per cent’, or six million votes, chief electoral officer Peter Erben told a news conference.

This was well below the turnout of 67 per cent at last year’s presidential election, won by Hamid Karzai. The figure was 76 per cent including Afghans living outside the country, but they did not vote this year.

Mr Erben said the initial turnout compared well with elections elsewhere in the world, particularly in post-conflict countries like Afghanistan.

“We consider the turnout this year satisfactory,” he said. “This number could change as the rest of our reports come in.”

Analysts said a range of factors including a complex electoral system, disappointment with a lack of progress since the last election and fall of the Taliban in 2001, and the fear of attacks had caused the drop in numbers.

The main group of independent observers, Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan, said its initial estimates also found just 50 per cent of registered voters took part in the election.

US President George Bush praised Afghan voters for ‘defying the Taliban’.

“I want to congratulate the people of Afghanistan for showing up at the polls and defying the Taliban and those who threaten their lives,” Mr Bush told reporters.

“These people supported democracy,” Mr Bush said, “and it’s just another step on their road toward a stable democracy, and we congratulate them.”

—AFP