PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan, August 27, 2009 (AFP) - The inhabitants of Logar province remember election day very clearly -- a day when they stayed at home, frightened by rockets and rebel threats, and the ballot boxes remained empty.

"To tell the truth, there were no elections in Logar province," said Siddikullah, keeping an eye on his spare parts workshop from the shade of a tree on the main street in Pul-i-Alam, capital of Logar, a militant stronghold just south of Kabul.

"People were afraid and stayed at home. There was no question of voting," said his friend Ukramran, who is a barber.

Despite its proximity to Kabul, the province has earned a terrible reputation as a den of criminals and insurgents.

And there were no half-measures in the rebels' campaign of intimidation aimed at discouraging voters and discrediting a ballot they regard as a charade orchestrated by the United States.

Ten days before the August 20 poll, four militants who had taken up positions in buildings in the middle of town sprayed the offices of the governor and police with a salvo of rockets and automatic gunfire.

The confrontation, which cost the lives of a police officer and the four attackers, traumatised a number of residents, as did the "night letters" posted by the Taliban threatening reprisals against anyone who might vote.

On the morning of the election, a rain of rockets on towns and villages across the province further dissuaded people from going to the ballot box, and "the people stayed in their homes", said Siddikullah.

His colleague Mansour Stanikzai, his long Afghan shirt splattered with engine grease, lives in nearby Padkhaw-Chana.

"In my village there more than 6,000 people. Only seven voted," he said.

Others gave similar accounts, contrasting it with the turnout of the last presidential election in 2004.

"Last time, lots of people came to vote," recalled mechanic Ali Gul, stroking his long pepper-and-salt beard.

"But not this time. In my village there are more than 200 houses, but only two people voted," he said.

The Independent Election Commission's officer for Logar province, Aminullah Fazly, received death threats and had to place his family in hiding. He acknowledged the poor turnout.

"Participation was really low," he said.

About half of the 400,000 inhabitants of the province had registered to vote. But despite being guarded by police, the majority of the polling stations remained more or less empty.

"In many cases, only shopkeepers working nearby or police and army went to cast their vote," Fazly said.

According to a source at the commission, "most of the ballot boxes came back with five, seven or 10 votes".

Of the province's seven districts, Azra, which is the safest, most populated and dominated by the Pashtun Ahmadzai tribe, was the sole exception.

Turnout there was more than 70 percent and the vote was split between the main candidates, including Afghanistan's Pashtun President Hamid Karzai.

The election commission had not stinted in its efforts to register voters, in particular women, in this conservative province.

"There were more women registered this year, because we put registration desks in clinics or schools. But they didn't vote," said Fazly.

"There were no men, so how can there be women?" said barber Ukramran.

Even so, in the evening, after the vote, "rebels went into the villages, seizing people, looking to see if their finger had ink (showing they had voted). And the ones who had were badly beaten," said Siddikullah.

Few people spoke of possible fraud in the election.

"To manipulate a vote, you first need to have a vote, but there was no vote," said shopkeeper Mohammad Taher.

All the Logar inhabitants questioned said they thought the election should have been postponed until the security situation improved.

"It seems that the government and its international partners don't care about the people's vote. They just organised it following their own interest," said Stanikzai.

And criticism turns naturally to the Karzai government and its international allies, all of whom hailed the vote.

"An election like that does not mean anything, because there was nobody in the polling centres. For example, me, if nobody came to my shop, I would have to close and do something else," said Siddikullah.