WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (AFP) - Washington Saturday congratulated the Afghan people for their history-making election and expressed confidence electoral officials would investigate technical problems that led to claims of fraud from opposition candidates.
"Today history was made in Afghanistan. We congratulate the Afghan people on exercising their political right to choose their country's next leader," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement released after the close of voting.
"They have much to be proud of in bringing their country to this point, just three years after the end of a quarter century of war and repression," he said.
Voter turnout was "extraordinarily high" and included a large number of women as Afghans went to the polls to select a head of state for the first time ever.
Voting hours were extended in some places to accommodate heavy turnout. First reports indicated no major security incidents, Boucher said.
He said election officials had vowed to thoroughly investigate technical problems that marred the voting.
"We note that there were reports of technical problems at some polling stations. We are confident that the Joint Electoral Management Body, which is charged with overseeing the elections, will review and address those complaints, as it has pledged to do."
Opposition candidates demanded fresh polls Saturday, charging widespread fraud, after it was discovered that the ink used to mark voters' hands to prevent them from casting more than one ballot could easily be rubbed off.
Fourteen candidates opposed to interim President Hamid Karzai, widely expected to win the vote, denounced the poll as fraudulent and illegitimate and called for a new election.
On the campaign trail Saturday ahead of US elections next month, President George W. Bush described the voting in Afghanistan just three years after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban as "a really great thing."
"As we meet here this morning, a really great thing is happening in Afghanistan," Bush said at a campaign rally in the US state of Iowa.
"The people of that country, who just three years ago were suffering under the brutal regime of the Taliban, are going to the polls to vote for president," he said.
"Think about that. Just three years ago, women were being executed in the sports stadium. Today they're voting for a leader of a free country," Bush said.
In Washington, the State Department spokesman pledged US support for Afghanistan's democratization going forward.
"This election is the latest milestone on the Afghan people's road to democratic government and vibrant civil society," Boucher said.
"In the spring, they will take another major step in charting their political future when they return to the polls to select members of parliament and local governments. The United States and the international community will continue to support them as they work toward this brighter future."