Afghanistan's historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence but the vote was thrown into turmoil instead by a boycott called by most of the candidates.

All 15 of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai as the only candidate in the fray.

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Fears of sabotage by Taliban militants who had vowed to disrupt the polls were overtaken halfway through the voting day when it became clear some workers were using the wrong pen to mark people's fingers after they voted.

This meant the ink could just be washed off and the voter could potentially cast a ballot again.

During the campaign, some candidates expressed surprise that as many as 10.5 million out of the country's 28 million people had registered to vote, and said they believed many people had received multiple voter cards. The indelible ink was aimed at preventing them from voting more than once.

The decision by Karzai's rivals to boycott the poll was made at an emergency meeting. Eighteen candidates are on the ballot but two withdrew this week in favor of Karzai.

Later all but one of the 15 demanded fresh polls and said they would not recognize any government elected on Saturday.

"We want the elections to be re-held as soon as possible in a fair, transparent manner and without interference," said Abdul Satar Serat, one of the candidates.

"Any government that comes to power as a result of today's election has no credibility, no validity and is illegitimate for us."

The mood in most places appeared irrepressibly upbeat.

"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Sayed Aminullah as he cast he vote at Eid Gah Mosque in the capital.

"I don't care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

In Kandahar city, the former headquarters of the Taliban and still the source of much of its support, large crowds of men pushed to get into a voting site near the blue-tiled Kherqi Sharif mosque.

On the other side of the street, only a trickle of women covered in burqa veils entered a school to vote, as many in the deeply conservative region have said they would not allow their wives and daughters to participate.

"We came here to vote for peace and stability and freedom for women," said Raihana, a 37-year-old mother of eight who lived in exile in Iran for 14 years to flee war.