Afghan Polls Close As Voters Face Taliban Threats by Alexander Tuerk – National Public Radio
Polls closed Saturday in Afghanistan's presidential election amid reports of historically low voter turnout due to Taliban threats, chaos among candidates and flawed voting procedures.
About 9.6 million Afghans are registered to vote, but only a fraction were expected to cast a ballot — fewer than the 2014 presidential election or the 2018 parliamentary elections, reporter Jennifer Glasse told NPR's Weekend Edition. A report from the Afghanistan Analysts Network puts rough estimates of turnout from the Independent Election Commission, or IEC, at under 2 million voters. This means a small percentage of the country will determine the democracy's fate.
The two front-runners, incumbent President Ashraf Ghani and his chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, have shared power since the 2014 presidential elections in a compromise negotiated by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In that race, Abdullah had accused Ghani of rigging the election, citing an alleged million fraudulent votes, and again warned of a possible illegitimate Ghani victory in Saturday's election…