Photos: A Glimpse of Afghanistan Before and During a Historic Election [UPDATED]

April 4th, 2014

Afghan voters display their national identity cards as they queue to cast their votes at a local polling station in Kandahar on April 5, 2014. (Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

A voter shows her inked finger after she cast her ballot at a local polling station in Kabul on April 5, 2014. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman leaves the booth after casting her vote at a polling station in the northwestern city of Herat on April 5, 2014. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)

A voter looks at a candidate list prior to casting his vote at a local polling station in Kandahar on April 5, 2014. (Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan women queue outside a school to vote in presidential elections in Herat on April 5, 2014. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty Images)

An election worker walks alongside a donkey as he and other workers transport election materials and ballot boxes to remote polling stations in Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan on April 3, 2014. (Farshad Usyan/AFP/Getty Images)

An Afghan roadside vendor hangs scarves next to political leaflets on a wall in Kabul on April 4, 2014. Some 12 million Afghans will go to the polls on April 5 to elect a new President. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan supporters stand under political posters bearing the image of presidential candidate Gul Agha Sherzai during a political rally on March 30, 2014. (Farshad Usyan/AFP/Getty Images)

An Afghan homeless man sleeps under graffiti protesting against the upcoming presidential elections and the security agreement with the U.S. in Herat, Afghanistan on March 29, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghans queue to receive their voter cards for the upcoming presidential election at a voter registration centre in Herat on March 31, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghans walk past graffiti against the upcoming presidential election in Herat on March 31, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghans gather outside a closed voter registration center to try to receive their voter cards a day after registration ended for the forthcoming presidential election in Herat on April 2, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Supporters run to get a good spot near the stage after they entered a field to see presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah speak at a rally on the last day of campaigning by presidential candidates on the outskirts of Kabul on April 2, 2014. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan men fill a local hall as they listen to a presidential candidate during his last speech of the campaign on April 2, 2014. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)

Police keep watch on the roof of a nearby building adjacent to the Afghan Ministry of Interior after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a nearby entrance to the interior ministry in central Kabul on April 2, 2014. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan election employee Forouzan Barez checks the plastic boxes containing election material at a warehouse prior to transportation to the polling centers in Herat on April 3, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan presidential election ballot boxes are stacked in rows at a warehouse in Herat on April 3, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman walks past trucks carrying ballot boxes and election material in Kandahar on April 3, 2014. (Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

A policeman searches election workers before the loading of electoral boxes onto trucks for transportation to the polling centers in Herat on April 3, 2014. (Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan men load donkeys with election materials in the rugged mountains of the Panjshir valley on April 4, 2014. (Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images)

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Asia Society's coverage of Afghanistan continues this Monday, April 7, when U.S. General John Allen joins Martha Raddatz of ABC News at Asia Society New York for a discussion on Afghanistan's security after the American troop withdrawal. Click here for complete details about the program and its accompanying live webcast.

UPDATE: Since this post was originally published, we've added five of our favorite photos from Afghanistan's momentous election day to the front of the above slideshow. Check back regularly on Asia Blog for further Afghanistan coverage as the results of the polling become known in the days and weeks ahead.

On April 5, 2014, Afghanistan will hold its third presidential election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Incumbent Hamid Karzai, who has held office since 2004, will step down to make room for one of 11 candidates. Three men are widely seen to be the front-runners: former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, and former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul. Abdullah and Ghani both ran unsuccessfully against Karzai in 2009.

Out of a population of more than 29 million people, approximately 12 million Afghans are eligible to vote on April 5. A concern of election monitors, however, is that 21 million voter registration cards are in circulation, some dating back as far as 2004. Approximately 1 million ballots were disqualified as fraudulent in Afghanistan's 2009 presidential election.

Click on any of the titles under "Related Links," below, for some of Asia Society's most recent Afghanistan coverage, and click here for a comprehensive overview of our blog posts, reports, video and other multimedia.

About the Author

Tahiat Mahboob is Asia Society's Senior Multimedia Producer. She grew up in Bangladesh, worked at New York Fashion Week and taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

@tahiatmahboob