Afghanistan's polling stations closed on Saturday amid speculation that none of the presidential candidates would get more than half of the vote, leading to a run-off. The Taliban also attacked several sites to disrupt the poll and caused casualties.
"The current presidential election is the most successful in the past 18 years," said Hewa Alam Nooristani, head of the Afghan election commission, adding that 98% of the 5,000 polling stations were open today.
The elections saw widespread female participation despite Taliban threats. According to the Independent Electoral Commission, women make up about a third of voters, while an Afghan official said the election was flawed and turnout was low.
Al-Jazeera correspondent said that observers do not expect any of the candidates to get more than half of the votes, which will lead to a run-off two months after the announcement of the final result of the first round expected in the middle of next month.
He added that the current President Ashraf Ghani and the Executive Authority Abdullah Abdullah lead the preliminary results in one of the polling stations in Kabul, but this may not apply to other centers and cities.
The reporter also said that the polling stations witnessed attacks by the Taliban centered mainly in the provinces of Kandahar, Nangarhar and Kunduz, and that the authorities are trying to minimize it and keep quiet on the numbers of dead and wounded, as intensified security measures prevented large-scale violence.
In a statement, the Taliban warned the Afghan people not to go to the polling stations.
In the northern province of Faryab, Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters in six districts, forcing residents to abstain.
The Taliban said in a statement that their fighters attacked polling stations in the eastern province of Laghman, while officials said that four explosions targeted the city of Jalalabad (east) and hindered the voting in some centers, as well as explosions in Kabul and Ghazni.