The violence was considerable but so was the courage of the Afghan voters

As the smoke clears on the Afghan election, President Hamid Karzai and and his U.S. allies wasted no time in setting out on a public relations offensive declaring the election a success.

They did this even before the ballots — and the dead and wounded from violence — are completely counted. At the end of the day, the violence was considerable but so was the courage of the Afghan people in resisting a campaign of fear and intimidation by the Taliban.

"The Afghan people dared rockets, bombs and intimidations," Karzai said at a press conference as polls closed.

"We'll see what the turnout was. But they came out to vote. That's great," he said.

GlobalPost's team of correspondents will be reporting on all corners of the country in the coming days as a more complete assessment is made.

GlobalPost Kabul correspondent Jean MacKenzie offered strong analysis through out the first day accompanied by strong photographs from Nicki Sobecki. Their coverage  is augmented by  GlobalPost correspondent Kimberly Johnson, who is on an embed in Helmand Province. 

And all of the daily reporting form the field is framed by the multimedia "special report," Life, Death and the Taliban, which we launched earlier this month.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/worldview/090820/the-violence-was-considerable-so-was-the-courage-the-afghan-voters