KABUL (AFP) - Early estimates showed a turnout of just over 50 percent in Afghanistan's first parliamentary polls in more than three decades, below that of last year's presidential vote.
Militants from the ousted Taliban had warned voters to stay away from Sunday's vote, seen as a crucial step in the war-shattered country's progress towards democracy, but failed to carry out any major attacks.
With closing reports in from around 35 percent of polling stations, "the turnout appears to be just over 50 percent", or six million votes, chief electoral officer Peter Erben told a news conference on Monday.
This was well below the turnout of 67 percent at the October 2004 presidential election won by Hamid Karzai. The figure was 76 percent including Afghans living outside the country, but they did not vote this year.
Erben said the initial turnout compared well with elections elsewhere in the world, particularly in post-conflict countries like Afghanistan.
"We consider the turnout this year satisfactory," he said. "This number could change as the rest of our reports come in."
Analysts said a range of factors including a complex electoral system, disappointment with a lack of change in the four years since the fall of the Taliban and the fear of attacks had caused the drop in numbers.
The main group of independent observers, Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan, said its initial estimates also found just 50 percent of registered voters took part in the election.
The same figure was given separately by the Afghan media group Kilid, which had correspondents in 24 of the 34 provinces.
The Taliban militia, overthrown in a US-led campaign in late 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on the United States, at first vowed to derail preparations for the vote but said they would not attack polling booths on election day.
Days before the election though a Taliban spokesman warned voters to boycott the election or face possible attacks.
There were a series of clashes and attacks across the country, with a suicide bombing thwarted in the eastern province of Khost, but voting was largely uninterrupted.
Nine people were killed in militant attacks on Saturday and Sunday including a French commando, but only three voters were injured in violence specifically linked to the election.
Seven candidates were also killed ahead of the polls, some of them by Taliban insurgents.
Erben said vote-counting was due to start on Tuesday with results not expected for more than two weeks.
Staff began to collect the 120,000 ballot boxes from 6,300 voting centres immediately after the polls closed on Sunday and worked overnight to take them to 32 counting centres, he said.
"We anticipate some will take over three days to transport (the boxes), which will happen on mules, donkeys and camels," he said.
Late Sunday a truck transporting ballot boxes in the eastern province of Nangarhar was badly damaged by a roadside bomb hours after polling stations closed, but no one was injured and the votes were not affected, police said.
World leaders praised the vote, which US President George W. Bush said was "a major step forward in Afghanistan's development as a democratic state governed by the rule of law."
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "Once again the Afghan people have shown how determined they are to build a better future for their country."
The European Union called the election a "milestone on the road to peace and stability".