Afghans go to the polls

President Hamid Karzai ticks his favorite candidate behind a booth at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Musadeq Sadeq/AP

Karzai displays his finger marked with indelible ink after casting his vote at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images

Voters are caught on camera in Kandahar Photograph: Matiullah Achakzai/EPA

US army soldiers from Delta Company, a part of Task Force 1-66, secure the perimeter of a polling station in the village of Gul Kalacheh, Arghandab river valley, Kandahar Photograph: Oleg Popov/Reuters

Female polling officials wait for voters at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Saurabh Das/AP

A man casts his vote at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

Men line up to cast their vote outside a polling station in the hamlet of Chawni, north of Kabul Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

A man rides his bicycle towards a polling station in Chawni Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

A policeman searches a voter before allowing him into a polling station in Kandahar Photograph: Omar Sobhani/Reuters

An election worker waits for voters at a polling station in Kandahar province Photograph: Omar Sobhani/Reuters

A man looks at a ballot paper as he casts his vote at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters

Representatives of candidates observe voting at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Andrew Biraj/Reuters

A woman shows her ink-stained finger before casting her ballot at a polling station in Herat Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters

A woman looks through the multiple page ballot paper at a mosque in Kabul Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

An election official counts ballots at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Fayaz Kabli/Reuters

Women wait to cast their ballots at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images

A deserted road during the parliamentary elections in Kandahar Photograph: Matiullah Achakzai/EPA

A woman votes at a polling station in Mazar-e-Sharif Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

A young girl looks through the window of a polling booth in Kabul Photograph: Saurabh Das/AP

A family on a motorbike pass an election poster in the centre of Herat Photograph: Reza Shirmohammadi/AP

An elderly Pashtun man holds aloft his ink-stained finger in Kabul Photograph: Saurabh Das/AP

Pashtun men wait for a polling booth to open in Kabul Photograph: Saurabh Das/AP

Women wait to cast their vote in Mazar-e-Sharif Photograph: Mustafa Quraishi/AP

Policewomen search voters at a polling station in Herat Photograph: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters

Election workers count ballot papers at a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters

Workers sort ballot papers at a station in Kandahar Photograph: Matiullah Achakzai/EPA

Voting officials count ballots – illuminated by gas lamps – in a polling station in Kabul Photograph: Andrew Biraj/Reuters