International
Poll Activity Kicks off in Afghanistan
Poll activity kicked off in Afghanistan amid huge security deployment on Thursday morning, as voters queued up at certain places to ballot in their preferences in the country’s second-ever presidential and provincial council elections.
After a relative lull over the last few months, violence escalated in weeks leading up to the polls, even as the government banned media coverage of attacks to ensure that frightened voters were nit deterred from participating in the democratic process.
Some 300,000 Afghan and NATO troops have been deployed to protect voters from possible insurgent attacks.