News (Consolidated) - UNSOM

KABUL - Polling stations are opening across the country now. On one of Afghanistan's leading TV stations a live election show is already underway. Farhad Darya, probably Afghanistan's most popular singer, is appealing for people to vote. He's urged Afghans that if they don't vote then the outcome…

20 August 2009 - 07:31 am: The Education Faculty in Jalalabad saw 58 year old Muhammad Yusef turn up at 5:45 am to vote. He said he had never voted before. 200 people showed up in the first half hour Voting has started in Kunduz. UNAMA’s Shamshudin Hamedi reports that the Kunduz Shirkhan High School…

20 August 2009 - 07:50am: At Bamyan’s Sayed Abad Girl’s High School Governor Habiba Sarabi was the first to vote at a women’s polling station. She said that as a citizen she came to vote, it was her right and responsibility. She said that as the governor of the province she came early to encourage…

20 August 2009 - 08:20 am: Member of Parliament Fawzia Koofi has just been live on BBC World Service saying the people are shaping their future. One of the great successes in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 has been the massive expansion in the private media sector.

20 August 2009 - 08:45 am: People in Mazar started to reach the polling stations from 06:45 am. After 30 minutes of delay due to the late positioning of the local observers the first voters started to use their democratic right by 07:30 am. Long lines of people are waiting in front of the Sultan…

20 August 2009 - 08:59 am: UNAMA's media summary from the main Afghan TV news last night is now available. A media blackout on election campaign reporting was in place. Noorin TV Headlines Three Taliban attacked a bank in Kabul City Wednesday morning, leaving three Taliban dead and three policemen…

20 August 2009 - 09:30 am: People started to queue early this morning in Afghanistan's capital city, Kabul.

KABUL - The top candidates in Thursday's presidential elections in Afghanistan have voted early, in an effort to motivate the electorate to show up at the polls. Incumbent president and front-runner Hamid Karzai was the first to exercise his franchise at 7.30am. at a boy's high school. More than 27…

20 August 2009 09:43 am - Afghans, young and old, male and female are queuing up outside polling stations across the country to cast their votes. Queues are building with reports in from Kabul, Herat and Dai Kundi out side polling centres with the polls now open for tow and half hours. In Jalalabad…

20 August 2009 - 11:03 am: Polling is underway in all four provinces of eastern Afghanistan peacefully. However, some polling centres couldn’t open in a few insecure districts of Nuristan province. Election observers – both domestic and international – and agents of various candidates were present…

20 August 2009 - 12:02 pm: The people of Afghanistan have begun voting in a historic Presidential election, the first ever organised by Afghan authorities. With polls opening at 7 am across over 27,000 polling stations country-wide, almost four hours ago, men and women defied security threats, to…

20 August 2009 - 12:05 am: The UN’s top envoy in Afghanistan has just visited a polling station in Kabul. Kai Eide encouraged voters at the Zarghona High School. Check all the latest photos from today here