Karzai, Dostum voting, security at booths, reax

(9 Oct 2004) SHOTLIST Kabul 1. Afghan President Hamid Karzai leaving voting booth and casting his vote in ballot box 2. Karzai leaves polling station 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan President: "It's a great day for the Afghan people, for the first time we are voting for elections to elect our president. This is a very great day, God is very kind to us and I hope this day will stay with us forever." 4. Wide of polling station 5. Various of security checks at entrance 6. Poster recommending identification for voters 7. Security checks 8. Policeman holding rifle 9. Election official inside polling station showing voter the ballot 10. Various voter casting ballot and leaving Khwaja Doko, 195 kilometres (120 miles) west of Mazar-e-Sharif 11. Various of crowd of people greeting Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum 12. Dostum greeting them 13. Various of people cheering for Dostum 14. Dostum putting his vote in ballot box 15. SOUNDBITE (Dari) General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Uzbek warlord: "I will win this election." 16. Dostum holding up his voter registration card 17. Supporters cheering Kabul 18. Security standing as women come to the polls 19. Various of women in burqas at polling station 20. Man being guided into polling booth by election official 21. Man voting 22. Various of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) trucks on patrol in the streets 23. US ambassador walking with press and observing 24. US ambassador talking to press Kabul 25. SOUNDBITE (English) Manoel de Almeida e Silva, UN Spokesman: "The people will be able to express their will, and if that is indeed the case we will have a new president, whoever it is, that will bring with him or her the representativeness of this nation. " Kabul 26. Various of men beating drums 27. Various of people singing and dancing in street as they enjoy the election day national holiday 28. Various of women on line to vote STORYLINE: Millions of Afghan voters braved threats of Taliban violence to cram polling stations throughout the ethnically diverse nation, in an election aimed at bringing peace and prosperity to a country nearly ruined by more than two decades of war. Voters queued for hours outside polling stations in bombed-out schools, blue-domed mosques and bullet-pocked hospitals to cast ballots, while more than 100,000 soldiers, police, US troops and other security forces were deployed to thwart attacks. Heightened security measures appeared to work, despite plenty of signs Taliban rebels were trying to disrupt the polls. On Friday, a bomb-sniffing dog discovered a fuel-truck rigged with anti-tank mines and laden with 40,000 litres (10,000 gallons) of petrol that three Pakistanis planned to detonate in the southern city of Kandahar. Interim leader Hamid Karzai, accompanied by heavily armed bodyguards, voted in a room at what was once the prime minister's residence. He rubbed his thumb to show reporters the ink didn't rub off. In Khwaja Doko, northern Afghan strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum cast his vote and declared that he would win the election. The voting offered a stark contrast in a nation that has endured many forms of imposed rule in the past 30 years - among them monarchy, Soviet occupation, warlord fiefdoms and the repressive Taliban theocracy ousted by the US-led invasion following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Electoral officials rejected the candidates' call to abandon the rest of the balloting, saying it would rob millions of voters of their chance to cast ballots and that they would rule later on the legitimacy of the election. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...