Donkeys and satellite phones pave the way for Afghan elections
300804
Organising the first presidential election in Afghanistan, a country largely without power, roads or literacy, has required a leap of imagination that has encompassed everything from donkeys to satellite phones.
94582
Afghans began voting on Saturday in a  historic poll that will give the mountainous Islamic nation on  the ancient Silk Road its first elected president and perhaps  end over a quarter-century of war.
286416
Voting has begun in Afghanistan for the first direct presidential election in the country's history.
5110
VOTING began in Afghanistan today for the first direct presidential election in the country&#39;s history. Some 10.5 million registered voters are eligible to select a president from a total of 18 candidates.
85217
KABULâTrying to pull off Afghanistan&#39;s first national presidential vote this Saturday will be a daunting task in this war-ravaged country largely lacking roads, security, electricity, phones and even literate voters.
569297
Afghans turned out in ``massive&#39;&#39; numbers for the nation&#39;s first direct presidential election, a United Nations spokesman said.
549990
KABUL, Afghanistan - In advance of Afghanistan's first-ever direct presidential election, Muslim clerics urged Friday worshippers to embrace democracy, election workers scurried to ready voting booths and 100,000 troops went on high alert across the country.    After the discovery of a truck laden with 10,000 gallons of gasoline and rigged with anti-tank mines, a nation that has known nothing but war held its breath in hopes that a threat by the Taliban to sabotage Saturday's vote would not materialize...
681838
For the first time since independence in 1919, voters in Afghanistan will go to the polls on Saturday to elect a new president. Enthusiasm is high: more than 11 million registered
16257
Afghans have braved threats of Taliban attacks to begin voting in a historic presidential election that they hope will mark the beginning of the end to a quarter century of conflict.
391282
Vote counting in Afghanistan&#39;s presidential election got under way Thursday, five days after a landmark vote meant to cement a new era of stability after more than two decades of strife.
43089
An Afghan polling official shows a UN worker, left, a sealed ballot box at a collecting station in the southern city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004.
423546
Rockets rained on cities and military outposts across Afghanistan as the war-weary nation prepared to go to the polls in Saturday's historic presidential elections.
604923
Vote counting started yesterday in Afghanistan&#39;s landmark election, widely expected to install Hamid Karzai, the US-backed interim leader, as the country&#39;s first popularly chosen president.
226749
Official figures show that Hamid Karzai is on the way to winning Afghanistan's first presidential elections.
709466
With a threatened boycott of its historic  presidential election firmly relegated to the background,  Afghanistan took first steps on Tuesday to begin counting  votes.
259605
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghans packed polling stations on Saturday for a historic presidential election that was blemished when all 15 candidates opposing U.S.-backed interim President Hamid Karzai withdrew, charging the government and the U.N. with fraud and incompetence...
675620
Afghans arrange votes in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 11, 2004. The Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body decided on Monday to suspend vote counting and start to investigate into the voting process.