KABUL, Sept. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has termed the Sunday's parliamentary elections closed hours ago as a defeat to terrorists.

    "It is a defeat to terrorists and an important step towards further stability in Afghanistan that the parliamentary elections held in a peaceful environment today," he told journalists at a press conference here Sunday evening.

    The voting began at 6 a.m. and was over at 5 p.m..

    The Afghan people including the women by their participation inthe elections, the president added, had demonstrated their resolvefor the rebuilding of their war-torn nation.

    "We expected more terrorists' attacks but they failed to disrupt the election," the president said while referring to Taliban's threat to derail the process.

    Taliban, according to the group's spokesman Mufti Abdul Latif Hakimi, had conducted 39 attacks in different parts of the countrybut failed to disrupt the polls.

    Millions of Afghans went to over 26,000 polling stations acrossthe country amid tight security to elect the members of parliamentand provincial councils from among nearly 5,800 candidates. Enditem