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Afghan election officials count ballot papers after polls closed in Kabul on June 14.
Afghan election officials count ballot papers after polls closed in Kabul on June 14.

Live Blog: Election Day In Afghanistan

Latest News

-- The vote count continues, as does the investigation into hundreds of claims of vote fraud. Final preliminary results are expected on July 2, and final results on July 22.

-- Many media refrained from reporting violence during the vote, but officials said June 15 that more than 270 Taliban attacks were recorded, resulting in the deaths of 50 civilians.

-- In one attack, a roadside bomb exploded beside a minibus that was carrying Afghan election workers home, killing 10 adults and a child.

-- Taliban militants severed the voting fingers of 11 voters in Herat Province.

-- The Independent Electoral Commission initially said that there were signs that voter turnout exceeded 7 million, putting it roughly on par with the first-round vote in April.

-- Officials said that, of those who turned out, 38 percent were women and 62 percent were men.

* NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kabul
08:06 13.6.2014
Will what is happening in Iraq happen in Afghanistan?

Many observers in Afghanistan have looked on in dread at the recent events unfolding in Iraq.

Abdullah, in a teleconference with the Atlantic Council last night, said the violence in Iraq illustrated the need for a "responsible" U.S. military exit strategy.

According to Reuters:
Asked whether he saw lessons from the insurgent violence in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011, Abdullah said: "There might be some common ingredients in both cases."

President Hamid Karzai failure to sign a BSA had done a lot of damage and "created shadow of uncertainty about the future," he said, while adding: "As far as the United States is concerned, one lesson out of it ... here also comes the issue of a responsible exit strategy. That is important."

07:42 13.6.2014
Kabul Sealed Off

Only election vehicles allowed to enter Kabul. All roads leading into the capital sealed off.
07:30 13.6.2014
Kuchis

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has established special polling centres for Kuchis, nomadic Pashtuns, in several provinces. Most of the polling sites are located near their camps.
07:02 13.6.2014
06:50 13.6.2014
06:40 13.6.2014
06:31 13.6.2014
Afghan Forces On Alert

190,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been deployed across the country, joining tens of thousands of national police, local police, village protection forces, and cadets. In total, there will around 400,000 Afghan security personnel out on election day.

That was the same number of security personnel used in the first round. It was the biggest security operation in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Foreign combat troops will again take a back seat tomorrow and assist with intelligence and logistics.
06:13 13.6.2014
Unenviable Job

Whoever becomes the new president will have a monumental task on his hands. Chief among the new president's concerns will the shrinking economy.

"Foreign Policy" magazine lists the challenges facing the new president:

"The latest Western retreat from Afghanistan has already left an ignominious legacy for the new president who will take over from Hamid Karzai in the country's first democratic transition of power. An election process marred by violence will culminate in the inauguration of a national leader who inherits a shrinking economy and an escalating insurgency, as sovereignty returns to Afghanistan after more than a decade of foreign occupation. A military economy worth hundreds of billions of dollars propped up Karzai's government for more than a decade, and directly supported almost half the population; much of it has already evaporated."
05:57 13.6.2014
Shuja Rabbani, the son of the late Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president of Afghanistan.
05:42 13.6.2014
Abdullah's Little-Known First Vice President Running Mate

Ashraf Ghani's second vice-president running mate -- the notorious former Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum -- has attracted most of the headlines. But the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), a Kabul think tank, points out that little has been heard from or even written about Abdullah's first vice-president running mate, Mohammad Khan.

What we know is that Khan is a senior member of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group and was a former lawmaker. But as AAN notes, Khan's official campaign biography skips over huge chunks of his life.

AAN's Kate Clark interviews Khan to fill in the gaps and provide insight into the background of the man who could be Afghanistan's next first vice-president.

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