Polls opened Thursday despite sporadic attacks in Afghan towns.

The United Nations said the turnout was encouraging despite the vow of Taliban figthters to disrupt the elections.

Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN mission in Kabul, said, “The vast majority of polling stations have been able to open and have received voting materials.”

He added, “There have been a number of attacks, particularly in the south and east of the country. But we are seeing queues forming at polling stations in the north, also in the capital, as well as, encouragingly, in the east.”

President Hamid Karzai was one of the first to vote in an election which could prove the toughest test yet of his own mandate and his nation’s fragile democracy.

(via Reuters)