KABUL, Afghanistan - Trucks, helicopters and donkeys carried ballots to counting centers across Afghanistan today, though early indications suggested voter turnout in landmark legislative elections was lower than in last year's presidential vote.

Afghan and international officials hailed Sunday's elections as a major success in the country's march toward democracy, but chief electoral officer Peter Erben said reports from about one-third of the polling stations indicated a turnout of just more than 50 percent.

The projection appeared to confirm suggestions by electoral officials and independent monitors that turnout was lower than hoped for due to security fears and frustrations over the inclusion of warlords on the ballot. Turnout was 70 percent in the October 2004 presidential election.

The government and its Western backers hailed the first elections for a national assembly in more than 35 years as a strong show of defiance in the face of Taliban threats and determination to bring stability after decades of war and chaos.

"Afghanistan should be satisfied with the turnout in yesterday's election," Erben said. He said it compared well with elections in other postwar countries.

President Hamid Karzai praised voters - who cast ballots in schools, mosques and even desert tents - for coming out "in spite of the terrorism, in spite of the threats." In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the election showed "the clear determination of the Afghan people to pursue the peaceful and democratic development of their nation."

President Bush called the vote successful and a major step forward, commending "the tremendous progress that the Afghan people have made in recent years."

Taliban rebels had called an election boycott. Militant attacks killed at least 15 people, including a French commando, in the hours before and during voting - the latest victims of violence that killed more than 1,200 people in the past six months.

The voting for parliament and 34 regional councils was the last formal step toward democracy under an internationally sponsored plan laid out following the ouster of the oppressive Taliban regime by U.S.-led forces in 2001. Many people looked to a big vote to marginalize Taliban rebels whose stubborn insurgency rumbles on in the south and east.

Once final results are posted, it will likely take time to figure out who has the power in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or parliament. There are fears it could be split along the same ethnic and tribal lines that fueled years of war as 1970s coups led to a decade-long Soviet occupation followed by devastating civil war and the Taliban takeover in the 1990s.