Voting began on Saturday to elect a president for Afghanistan with more than 9 million Afghan registered voters potentially heading to the polls amid fears of violence and fraud, Trend reports citing Reuters.
Tens of thousands of Afghan forces were deployed across 34 provinces to protect voters and polling stations from Taliban attacks.
The hardline insurgent group has threatened voters to stay away from the election or face dire consequences.
About 9.6 million of Afghanistan’s 34 million people are registered to vote for one of 14 candidates at around 5,000 polling centers that will be protected by some 100,000 Afghan forces with air support from U.S. forces.
More than 400 polling centers will remain closed because they are situated in areas under Taliban control. Hundreds more in schools, mosques and district centers will be closed because of security concerns.