Kabul: Afghanistan's election authority has said that turnout in Thursday's presidential and provincial polls was "very good" half way through voting and predicted it could reach around 50 per cent.
Some 95 per cent of 6,500 polling stations opened although 312 centres remained closed, Independent Election Commission official Zekria Barakzai said. He, however, did not say why the centres did not open.
"The turnout is very good, but we don't have exact figures," said Barakzai, deputy chief electoral officer.
"We managed to open 95 per cent of the 6,500 polling centres. We have 6,185 open, 312 closed," he said, adding that he'd had no word on the status of a further 16.
The commission said that initially it planned to open nearly 7,000 polling centres but later warned as few as 6,200 could open because of poor security.
The Taliban threatened to attack the polls and authorities reported several small attacks across the country, including a Kabul gunbattle and some directed at polling stations, but voting appeared to proceed smoothly.
But a Western diplomat said his indications were that 50 per cent was rather high with reports of turnout particularly poor in the south.
Fears of attacks have stoked fears that weak turnout could threaten the credibility of the elections.