By Wang Jun     

    KABUL, Oct. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Around 10.5 million Afghan voters filed into some 22,000 polling stations across the country to elect their preferred leaders for the next five years.

    Among extra tight security, voters, men and women alike, went to nearest balloting sites to cast their votes. In Kabul, the capital of the small Central Asian country, some people stood in queue around 6:30 AM outside mosques and schools where the ballot will take place. In a famous mosque frequented by Hazaras, the third largest ethnic minority group in the country, hundreds of men, many of them wearing traditional long robes and turbans, stand in the cold and dusty wind, waiting patiently for their turns to cast.

    The security is especially tight, as the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies have threatened repeatedly to disrupt the polling with all means. A handful of taxis, police vehicles, buses and cars owned by foreign agencies went by the armed policemen and Afghan National Army soldiers.

    In front of the Defense Ministry compound, a number of US special Operations soldiers, disguised as civilians, stand guard in their HUMVEEs.

    Journalists from abroad and home struggled with some policemen in Kabul who barred them from getting inside the polling sites although according to the rule they are entitled to do so.

    The weather turned nasty overnight. A sandstorm attacked the capital, turning the city into a surrealistic scene in a sci-fi picture. Some Afghans said this is a bad omen for the whole nation,and they wonder what will happen during the day and after.

    Some of the participants in the voting complained about the practice of applying indelible ink on their fingers, as the special ink will last for four or five days, making their easy targets for potential terrorist attacks. In last June, 16 Afghan civilians were killed coldbloodly by Taliban operatives in south as they have with them registration cards.

    In a makeshift polling station in a well-to-do district in the capital, a 18-year-old high school student was the first to show up for voting. A Pashtun by birth, he said he will cast his vote for incumbent leader Hamid Karzai, "he is a good man," he said in passable English.

    Several other Hazaras said they will vote for a candidate of their own ethnic groups, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, the former Planning Minister, as they say this strongman has made a lot of sacrifices and saved his men from several crises.

    Refugees living now in Pakistan began voting half an hour earlier than their motherland, as there's a 30 minute timelag between the two neighboring countries. Enditem