Kabul, Aug 20 (DPA) Turnout was low Thursday morning in Afghanistan's presidential and provincial elections as rockets hit southern and northern provinces, but more voters turned out in the afternoon, defying Taliban threats to disrupt the balloting.

Hundreds of voters were lining up outside some polling stations, and hours-long waits were expected after security forces killed one would-be suicide bomber and arrested two more as they tried to enter polling stations.

Few deaths were reported in the early violence as 200,000 Afghan forces and more than 100,000 international troops provided security for the voting.

About 17 million Afghans are eligible to vote, among them President Hamid Karzai, the frontrunner in the presidential race, who cast his vote at a polling station near the presidential palace in Kabul early in the day.

Karzai is vying for re-election against about 30 candidates, including two women, in the second direct vote for president in the recent history of Afghanistan.

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost are the main challengers to the incumbent. All three had once served in Karzai's government.

Initial turnout in Kabul was about three to four times lower than in the 2004 presidential election, possibly also out of fear of attacks, which in Kabul often occur early in the day, witnesses said.

But one early voter brushed aside the security fears.

'I was excited last night,' said Mohammad Zewar, a Kabul resident who was waiting before the polls opened in front of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque, where a polling station was located. 'I could not sleep and could not wait to come here.'

'The enemies are talking a lot, but I sure they can't do anything,' he said.

Shaima Dedarshah, a voter at a polling station in central Kabul, also she was not afraid to come out to vote. 'I am not afraid because you die once, and if I had not come out, I would have had it all the time, so I had to put the fear behind me.'

While Zewar and Dedarshah's hopes for a peaceful election day were echoed by voters in other parts of Kabul, the Taliban claimed its militants attacked 16 polling stations throughout the country and closed several others.

Afghan officials confirmed that rockets fired by Taliban militants hit the capitals of at least four provinces, but there were no deaths. Sporadic shooting was also heard in Kabul.

In Kandahar, capital of Kandahar province in the volatile south, voters were reluctant to talk or show their fingers that were inked after they cast their ballots. The Taliban had threatened to cut off the fingers or slit the throats of voters.

The streets of Afghanistan's second-largest city were quiet as civilian traffic and even bicycles were barred from the roads, leaving only ambulances and security vehicles on patrol.