The attack happened just outside Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Afghanistan, considered relatively peaceful compared with parts of the south, late Thursday in the hours after the country’s second presidential poll.

“A jeep and a truck were on their way from Siagird village after counting finished and were carrying ballot boxes to Mazar-i-Sharif,” said Abdul Raouf Taj, deputy police chief for northern Balkh province.

“They were attacked by Taliban. A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) was fired into the truck, which set the truck ablaze and killed a worker in charge of the voting centre, Mir Ayamuddin,” added Taj.

The election commission announced earlier that insurgent attacks had killed 11 election workers involved in organising Thursday’s elections.

“Unfortunately, we have reports that 11 workers of the commission who were committed to conducting transparent, successful elections in the country have been killed since the start of preparations until Thursday,” it said.

Nearly 120,500 Afghans were drafted in to organise the presidential and provincial council elections on Thursday which the Taliban vowed to disrupt.

The commission gave no details of the victims or when and how they were killed, other than at the hands of “enemies of peace and security” — a euphemism used by Afghan officials when referring to the Taliban.

Afghan and Western leaders have hailed the ballot as a success with far less violence than expected, although reports of poor turnout, irregularities and counter-claims of victory threaten to overshadow the official results.