Afghans risk their lives to vote in delayed Kandahar poll

Afghans risked their lives to vote in legislative elections in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, after the Taliban-claimed killing of a powerful police chief delayed the ballot by a week.

An hour after voting was due to start, long queues of turbaned men could be seen outside still-shuttered polling centres in the deeply conservative Kandahar provincial capital, which was blanketed with heavy security in anticipation of militant attacks.

More than half a million people are registered to vote in Kandahar province where organisers are under pressure to avoid last weekend's debacle that forced the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to extend the nationwide ballot by a day.

Problems with untested biometric verification devices, missing or incomplete voter rolls and absent election workers following Taliban threats to attack the ballot forced Afghans to wait hours outside polling stations, many of which opened late or not at all.

Similar issues were already evident in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and a province notorious for voting fraud, with many polling sites in the city still closed -- despite assurances from IEC deputy spokeswoman Kobra Rezaei on Friday that "we are absolutely ready".

"I have been standing outside the polling centre since 6:00 am, but it still hasn't opened," university student Mohammad, who uses only one name, told AFP.

Voting in the province was postponed following the October 18 death of General Abdul Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in the south, amid fears of violence flaring up.

Raziq was among three people killed in an insider attack on a high-level security meeting in Kandahar city that was attended by General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Miller escaped unhurt, but US Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was among 13 people wounded in the shooting claimed by the Taliban. It is hoped that the appointment of Tadeen Khan -- a brother of Raziq and a member of the Afghan security forces -- as acting provincial police chief will help keep a lid on polling day unrest.

"I have to vote for a better future for my country," shopkeeper Abdul Abbas told AFP outside a polling centre.

"I have defied all the threats of attacks and explosions to vote."