KABUL (Reuters) - Parliamentary elections in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, due to be held on Saturday, will be delayed by one week following the assassination of the powerful provincial police commander, officials said on Friday.

Hafizullah Hashimi, spokesman of the Independent Election Commission, said the decision to delay the vote had been taken because the people of Kandahar were “morally not ready to vote” following the death of the commander, General Abdul Razeq, who was killed by a rogue bodyguard of another top official on Thursday. </s> Kabul, Afghanistan - Parliamentary election in Afghanistan's Kandahar province due to be held on Saturday, will be delayed by a week following the assassination of a powerful provincial police commander, according to the electoral body and the president's spokesman.

President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman Haroon Chakansuri told Al Jazeera the decision was made following demands from local people in the the province and recommendation from electoral officials.

The suspension of the polls comes following the assassination of Kandahar province's police chief General Abdul Raziq in an attack claimed by Taliban.

The southern province's intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin, was also killed in the attack on Thursday.

Chakansuri said date for the poll will be announced later without giving further details.

Afghans will be voting on Saturday to elect members of parliament in polls delayed repeatedly for the past three years.

The interior ministry said they have put in place measures to ensure voting happens without incidents.

"The election is going according to plan. We have measures and we meet regularly. There will be no problem," Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the interior ministry, told Al Jazeera.

"Over 70,000 security forces are there to maintain security. They are on high alert," Rahimi said. </s> Parliamentary elections in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, due to be held on October 20, will be delayed by one week following the assassination of the powerful provincial police commander, Haroon Chakhansori, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, has tweeted on his official account.

"In accordance with Article 104 of the Electoral Law, the Security Council accepted [the commission's proposal] and the [parliamentary] elections in Kandahar Province have been delayed only for one week," Independent Election Commission spokesman Hafizullah Hashimi told RFE/RL.

Hashimi said the decision to delay the vote had been made because the people of Kandahar Province were "morally not ready to vote" following the death of General Abdul Raziq, who was killed by a rogue bodyguard of another top official on October 17. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Unfortunately, Afghanistan lost its sons yesterday [in Kandahar] and it is possible that holding elections will create challenges in Kandahar. So, the Election Commission decided to propose the postponement of the election," commission member Wasima Badghisi told RFE/RL.

Raziq's killing was a major blow to the Western-backed government in Kabul.

The Taliban claimed responsibility in a statement, saying, "The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along with several other officials."

Afghan officials told RFE/RL that a bodyguard opened fire after a high-level security meeting in the governor's compound.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, was present at the gathering but was unhurt, NATO spokesman Grant Neely said.

Besides Raziq -- one of Afghanistan's most powerful commanders, with a fearsome reputation as an enemy of the Taliban -- the provincial intelligence head, Abdul Momin Hassankhail, was also killed.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died in the attack, according to NAI, a group supporting open media in the country.

A close ally of the U.S. military, Raziq has been credited with pacifying large swaths of Kandahar but has been accused by human rights groups of gross human rights violations, including forcible disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently in Afghanistan, and Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner told the Reuters news agency that the attack in Kandahar "will not change U.S. resolve in our South Asia strategy, if anything it makes us more resolute."

Afghanistan remains on high alert ahead of the long-delayed parliamentary elections on October 20, after the Taliban pledged to block the vote.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house of parliament.

The run-up to the elections has been marred by deadly militant attacks and targeted killings of candidates, 10 of whom have been killed so far.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP </s> A suicide attack at a polling station outside Kabul killed at least 15 people on Saturday, with several others dying in scores of bombings, rocket attacks and incidents of violence across the country.

Over 170 people have reportedly been killed or wounded as voters went to around 21,000 polling stations.

Technical issues forced the closure of some of the stations, while voting hours were extended until Sunday in other areas.

Read more: Afghanistan violence raises uncertainty over elections, Kandahar vote delayed

How voting day was marred

At least 18 people were killed and 67 injured in blasts close to polling stations in several areas of the capital, Kabul.

In eastern Nangarhar province, an explosion left at least two people dead and three injured, and in northern Takhar province, at least one person was killed and eight others injured when a suspected Taliban rocket hit their home, said local leaders.

Rockets fired from the outskirts of northern Kunduz city struck near polling stations, injuring several people, dpa reported.

Several polling stations stayed shut due to technical issues, including missing biometric systems, and the non-arrival of voter registration lists, officials said.

Hours into polling, Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission said voting would be extended until 8 p.m. local time (1530 UTC) across much of the country. It said some polling stations, where election materials arrived late, would postpone voting until Sunday.

The provinces of Ghazni and Kandahar — the scene of Thursday's violent attack — postponed polling for a week.

Read more: The high price of Afghanistan's broken democracy

Anger at voting irregularities

Many of the people trained to use the biometric machines did not show up for work, as Taliban warned the voters to boycott the ballot "to protect their lives."

One election observer from Kabul province told DW: "Everything is a mess ... nothing is working. The systems they have put in place are not functioning."

Sami Mahdi, a parliamentary candidate in Kabul, accused the election commission of "mismanagement." He added: "Our observers have also witnessed cases of fraud but we will have to assess these reports."

Yosuf Rashid, from the election oversight organization Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA), said it was too early to pass a judgment on the whole process. "I hope by the end of the day, the election commission learns from its mistakes and addresses these issues tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Aziz Ibrahimi, deputy spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, admitted to DW that there had been some irregularities: "The commission has decided to extend elections in centers which did not start work on time. But we do not know how many centers will remain open tomorrow."

Read more: Afghanistan election: Can young candidates turn things around?

mm, dj/jlw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> Afghans are bracing for more deadly violence on Saturday as voters turn out for the long-delayed legislative election across the war-torn country that the Taliban has vowed to attack.

Some 54,000 security forces have been deployed to protect polling centres, which open at 7:00 am, but there are concerns the killing of a powerful police chief on Thursday will scare off many voters.

Voting has been delayed in the southern province of Kandahar after a Taliban-claimed attack on a US-Afghan security meeting that killed three people, including General Abdul Raziq.

General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, escaped injury in the shooting, but 13 others were wounded.

Almost nine million people have registered to vote in the parliamentary election, which is more than three years late and only the third since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

But the threat of militant attacks and expectations for massive fraud are expected to deter many voters from showing up at the more than 5,000 polling centres.

In the days leading up to the poll, the Taliban has issued several statements urging candidates to withdraw and voters to boycott what the group calls a "malicious American conspiracy".

Shambolic preparations for the ballot have been made worse by a wave of poll-related violence that has left hundreds dead or wounded.

At least 10 candidates out of more than 2,500 contesting the lower-house election have been killed so far.

The most recent victim was Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

Most of the candidates are political novices and include doctors, mullahs and journalists. Those with the deepest pockets are expected to win.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which has spearheaded international efforts to keep Afghan election organisers on track, on Friday urged voters to "exercise their constitutional right to vote".

The poll is seen as a crucial test for next year's presidential election and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".

But the eleventh hour introduction of biometric voter verification machines, which have never been used in an Afghan election, threatens to derail the process.

Observers are concerned the results could be thrown into turmoil if the devices are broken, lost or destroyed.

There are also fears the data could be manipulated before preliminary results are released on November 10.

Votes cast without the controversial machines will not be counted, the Independent Election Commission has said, even though polling centre workers have received little or no training in how to use them. </s> KABUL -- Afghanistan’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has declared that all votes cast in Kabul Province during the country’s October parliamentary election are invalid.

IECC spokesman Alirez Rohani told reporters in Kabul on December 6 that the decision was made because for 25 different reasons -- including major fraud and mismanagement by the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC).

He said hundreds of complaints were filed about voting irregularities in the Afghan capital and surrounding areas of Kabul Province.

A spokesman for the Afghan election commission, Mohammad Haqparast, told RFE/RL on December 6 that the IEC was preparing to issue a statement "soon" in response to the invalidation of the votes.

At least 18 people were killed and 67 injured by a series of bomb attacks close to polling stations in Kabul during the October 20 vote.

Technical issues that marred the vote and caused some polling stations to be closed included missing biometric systems and the non-arrival of voter registration lists.

Lawmakers who represent Kabul Province have 33 of the 250 seats in Afghanistan’s lower chamber of parliament – the Wolesi Jirga.

All of the lawmakers are directly elected. There are 68 seats reserved for woman under Afghanistan’s constitution.

The election originally was scheduled for October 2016 but was postponed until July 7, 2018 -- and then postponed again until October 20 when voting took place in 32 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

Even then, security concerns and the organizational difficulties set back voting by another day in 400 constituencies across the country.

In Kandahar Province, voting was delayed by another week due to a deadly attack on the provincial police chief, General Abdul Raziq, on October 18.

Voting in Ghazni Province has still not been completed.

About nine million Afghans were registered to vote at 21,000 polling stations across the country. They included about 3 million women.

More than 54,000 security forces were deployed to protect polling stations across the country. </s> Afghan election workers began counting votes on Saturday following a partial legislative ballot tarnished by scores of deadly terror attacks, technical glitches and administrative chaos.

Nearly 170 people -- civilians and security forces -- were killed or wounded in election-related violence, official figures showed, and there are fears of more bloodshed when voting resumes Sunday in 401 polling centres.

"Inevitable" problems with biometric verification devices, which were introduced at the eleventh hour, as well as missing voter registration lists and lack of staffing delayed or even prevented voting at those polling sites, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) told reporters.

According to initial IEC figures around three million voters turned up at 4,500 polling centres. Elections have been postponed in Ghazni and Kandahar provinces.

That compares with nearly nine million registered voters, though many suspect a significant number of those were based on fake identification documents that fraudsters planned to use to stuff ballot boxes.

Most polling sites opened hours late after voter rolls were not delivered or teachers employed to manage the voting process failed to show up following Taliban threats to attack the ballot.

There were multiple explosions across Kabul during the day. Hours before polls closed a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a polling centre in the Afghan capital, which police said killed at least 15 people and wounded 20.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the Taliban said it had carried out more than 400 attacks on the "fake election" across the war-torn country.

Violence also disrupted voting in the northern city of Kunduz where a senior health official told AFP three people died and 39 were wounded after more than 20 rockets rained down on the provincial capital.

Eight explosions were recorded in the eastern province of Nangarhar, with two people killed and five wounded, the provincial governor's spokesman said.

The interior ministry put the overall casualty toll -- including civilians and security forces -- slightly lower at 160, with 27 civilians killed and 100 wounded.

There were 193 attacks across the country, which the ministry said was half the number recorded on the day of the 2014 presidential election.

Despite threats of violence, voters waited for hours outside polling centres across the country. Some eventually gave up and went home without casting a ballot.

University student Mohammad Alem said he felt "frustrated" after spending more than three hours trying to vote in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, only to discover his name was not on the registration list.

"There also were some problems with the biometric devices because they were already running out of charge," he said.

After waiting four hours at a polling centre, Tabish Forugh tweeted he had not seen "even remotely similar... chaos" at previous elections.

The parliamentary ballot is more than three years late and only the third since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Turnout was likely affected after the terrorist group issued several warnings in the days leading up to the poll calling on candidates to withdraw from the race and for voters to stay home.

Hundreds of people were killed or wounded in the months before the poll.

The killing of a powerful police chief in the southern province of Kandahar on Thursday further eroded confidence in the ability of security forces to protect voters.

Voting in Kandahar has been delayed until October 27 following the attack.

Despite the risks, President Ashraf Ghani urged "every Afghan, young and old, women and men" to exercise their right to vote, after casting his ballot in Kabul.

Photos posted on social media showed scores of men and women clutching their identification documents lining up outside voting centres amid a heavy security presence.

A woman dressed in a burqa leaving a polling centre in Mazar-i-Sharif told AFP she had been worried about "security incidents", but decided to vote anyway.

"We have to defy the violence," Hafiza, 57, said.

At least 10 candidates out of more than 2,500 contesting the lower-house election were killed ahead of the poll.

Most of those standing are political novices, and include doctors, mullahs and journalists. Those with the deepest pockets are expected to win.

The poll is seen as a crucial test for next year's presidential election and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".

Preliminary results are scheduled to be released on November 10.

Votes cast without biometric machines will not be counted, the IEC has said. </s> HEART: At least 22 police officers were killed in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan, a health official said Monday, in another blow to Afghan forces already suffering record casualties.

The attack on the police convoy in Farah province follows a wave of violence across Afghanistan in recent weeks, including a suicide bombing inside an army base mosque on Friday, and intensifying efforts to convince the Taliban to end the 17-year war. At least two police officers were wounded in Sunday’s ambush, said Shir Ahmad Weda, director of the public hospital in the provincial capital.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a WhatsApp message, saying 25 police were killed and four wounded. “Four vehicles were destroyed and a large quantity of weapons were seized,” Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the militants, added. Provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib said the convoy had been travelling from Farah city to Juwain district when it came under attack.

Afghan presidential election may be postponed: Afghanistan’s embattled election organisers are considering delaying April’s presidential ballot by three months, officials said Monday, as they struggle to tally votes cast in the recent legislative poll and resolve thousands of complaints.

The remarks come as the United States spearheads international efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks to end the 17-year war that some had feared could be derailed by the April 20 presidential vote, which is expected to fiercely contested. The ballot could be pushed back to July 13, spokesmen for the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) told reporters. “There are legal and technical issues that should be addressed properly (if the vote is to be delayed),” ECC spokesman Ali Reza Rohani said. “We have to see if the proposed new date of July 13 is practical and whether we have to hold four elections at once.” Presidential, provincial council and district council elections are scheduled to take place across the country in 2019. </s> At least 22 police officers were killed in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan, a health official said Monday, in another blow to Afghan forces already suffering record casualties.

 The attack on the police convoy in Farah province follows a wave of violence across Afghanistan in recent weeks, including a suicide bombing inside an army base mosque on Friday, and intensifying efforts to convince the Taliban to end the 17-year war.

 Two police officers were wounded in Sunday´s ambush, said Shir Ahmad Weda, director of the public hospital in the provincial capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a WhatsApp message, saying 25 police were killed and four wounded.

 “Four vehicles were destroyed and a large quantity of weapons were seized,” Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the militants, added.

 Provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib said the convoy had been travelling from Farah city to Juwain district when it came under attack. Mohib put the death toll at five with another seven wounded.

 The Taliban and its smaller rival the Daesh have been inflicting record casualties on the forces this year.

 Since the start of 2015, when local forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country, nearly 30,000 Afghan soldiers and police have been killed, President Ghani revealed this month — a figure far higher than anything previously acknowledged.

 Meanwhile, Afghan authorities are considering postponing a presidential election scheduled for April 20 next year, officials said, following heavy criticism of the chaotic organization of parliamentary elections last month.

 Kubra Rezaie, a spokeswoman at the Independent Election Commission, said an option was being considered in which the presidential election, along with already delayed parliamentary elections in the central province of Ghazni and district council elections could be delayed by three months.

 “But we cannot say they will be postponed because this is something at an initial stage,” she said.

 Last month’s parliamentary elections, which saw huge delays at polling stations across Afghanistan, came in for heavy criticism over problems ranging from incomplete voter lists to malfunctioning biometric voter verification equipment.

 However, any delay to the presidential ballot could provoke strong opposition from political groups, many of which suspect President Ashraf Ghani of trying to engineer his own re-election.

 The issue is complicated by diplomatic efforts to start peace talks with the Taliban, who have met US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad but who have refused to deal with the Afghan government, which they consider illegitimate.

 The IEC has announced preliminary result for parliamentary elections in 10 of the 33 Afghan provinces where voting took place. The election was not held in Ghazni due to disputes over representation between different ethnic groups.

 Results in the rest of the provinces have yet to be announced as recounting votes continues in some provinces, caused by the large number of complaints about fairness.— Agencies
Because of technical issues in some constituencies, voting was extended until Sunday. Additionally, voting in the Kandahar Province will be delayed by one week following the assassination of police commander Abdul Raziq Achakzai two days prior.