The NATO Senior Civlian Representative in Afghanistan Cornelius Zimmermann has hailed the Afghan people for their courage and determination for the massive turnout in the long-delayed parliamentary elections amid serious security threats.

Observing the parliamentary elections in Kabul, Ambassador Cornelius Zimmermann said “I’m impressed by the courage and determination of Afghan voters shaping the future of their country.”

“Tomorrow the people of Afghanistan will have the choice to cast their vote and choose their representatives for parliament. They should be able to do that freely, without fear of violence or intimidation,” Ambassador Zimmermann had said ahead of the elections.

The parliamentary elections kicked off in 32 provinces of Afghanistan at around 7am local time today as large number of voters, including men and women, showed up in polling stations to cast their votes in the long-delayed parliamentary elections.

With the induction of the state-of-the-art technology or biometrics system in this parliamentary election being a new phenomenon, the conduct of the process faced some hurdles, mainly due to the lack of training and experience to properly utilize the system.

However, the Independent Election Commission Chief Gula Jan Abdul Badi Sayad has said that the elections time would be extended to Sunday in the polling stations which have failed to open for the voters until 1pm today, due to technical issues.