Kabul, Afghanistan ? Afghans chose a legislature for the first time in decades Sunday, embracing their newly recovered democratic rights and braving threats of Taliban attacks to cast votes in schools, tents and mosques.

Violence in the hours before voting began and during the day killed 15 people, including a French commando in the U.S.-led coalition that is helping Afghans build a democracy after a quarter-century of conflict. But there were no signs of a spectacular attack threatened by Taliban militants to disrupt the vote.

Sunday’s vote was considered the last formal step toward democracy on a path set out after a U.S.-led force drove the Taliban from power in 2001, when they refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the 9-11 attacks.

A stepped-up campaign by insurgents over the past six months killed 1,200 people, including seven candidates and four election workers.

It appeared tight security helped on election day, with only three people injured and no one killed near polling places, although officials said they thwarted plots to smuggle explosives into polling places in pens and a clock.

Despite violence elsewhere in the country, the focus was on getting out the vote after intense efforts by United Nations officials and the U.S.-led coalition to organize the election and provide security for voters.

An Afghan man casts his ballot Sunday at a polling station set up inside a 300-year-old mosque which was badly damaged during the civil war in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“We are making history,” President Hamid Karzai said while casting his ballot. “It’s the day of self-determination for the Afghan people. After 30 years of wars, interventions, occupations and misery, today Afghanistan is moving forward, making an economy, making political institutions.”

Around 8 million people voted in last October’s presidential election, and there were high hopes even more would turn out Sunday. Organizers said they would not have any turnout figures before today, but some officials in the field and independent monitors said it appeared fewer people voted.

“It’s hard to gauge the exact numbers, but the impression we have is that the turnout is lower,” said Saman Zia-Zarifi, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, which had 14 observers monitoring the elections.

Vote counting begins Tuesday, and partial provisional results will be released once 20 percent of the ballots in a province are tallied. Complete provisional results are expected early next month.