KABUL (PAN): A key challenger to President Hamid Karzai in the presidential vote -- the second in Afghanistan's history -- has characterised initial results from the landmark polls as "satisfactory and encouraging."

Shortly after 10 hours of voting for the key elections ended at 5pm, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah told a news conference he had received from his election office a report about preliminary results from several parts of the country.

"All citizens are awaiting change and their votes won't go in vain. I'm optimistic the final outcome will be as good as the initial one," remarked the former foreign minister, who hit out at the government for failing to maintain security.

The defunct Northern Alliance leader alleged many registered Afghans could not exercise their franchise because of security concerns in several provinces.

"A large number of our countrymen could not vote due to insecurity. This reflects the seven-year-old government's failure," observed the ex-minister, who accused authorities of interfering brazenly with the voting process.

At least 26 civilians lost their lives in scattered attacks by the Taliban fighters who had vowed to disrupt the important democratic exercise. But government officials insisted the guerrillas failed to achieve their objective.

He alleged two army officers hampered voters' entry into polling stations in Kandahar, President Hamid Karzai's native province and the birthplace of the Taliban movement. He was confident the Independent Election Commission (IEC) would make amends for violations of the poll law.

Dr. Abdullah went on to thank media organisations for covering the elections -- featuring 34 presidential and thousands of provincial council hopefuls -- in a manner they were expected to.

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