The main challenger to President Karzai accused him yesterday of rigging last week’s Afghan presidential election as investigators began wading through hundreds of complaints that could leave the country in political limbo for more than three weeks.

However, Abdullah Abdullah told The Times that he would challenge alleged fraud only through legal channels, rather than calling his supporters out in protest, and would accept defeat if it was ultimately confirmed by election bodies.

His moderate stance — after talks with US officials — eased short-term fears that the country could split along ethnic lines and erupt in protest after Mr Karzai and Mr Abdullah both claimed a first-round victory on Friday.

Western officials already wrestling with a Taleban insurgency fear that political unrest would exacerbate a situation that Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted yesterday was “serious and deteriorating”.

The scale of the alleged fraud now threatens to undermine the entire election process, which is seen as a test of international efforts to defeat the Taleban and build democracy in Afghanistan.

“Widespread rigging has taken place by the incumbent, through his campaign team, and through the state apparatus,” Mr Abdullah, a former eye doctor and Foreign Minister, said. “This has to be prevented. That’s critical for the survival of the process and that’s critical as far as the hope for a better life of the Afghan people is concerned.”

The Times discovered further discrepancies yesterday in figures being reported from Helmand province, where British Forces have been since 2006 and launched Operation Panther’s Claw in June to allow 80,000 more people to vote.

Engineer Abdul Hadee, the local head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), told The Times on Thursday evening that fewer than 50,000 people had voted in Helmand, but changed that figure yesterday to 110,000. He also said that turnout in the district of Garmsir was 20,000, compared with zero as he had claimed on Thursday. In Nawa district his estimate had risen from zero to 3,000.

Mr Hadee also said that 18,000 people had voted in Musa Qala district. He had not given an earlier estimate, but a Western official monitoring the election said that turnout in the district was only 9,000.

Mr Hadee said that his earlier estimates were based on incomplete information. Analysts said that was possible but it was more likely that the ballot boxes had been stuffed in the absence of local or international monitors, who could not be there because of poor security. “There was big fraud in the election here,” a local journalist told The Times. “I think only 10 or 15 per cent of people in Helmand voted.”

British officials declined to comment on the poll in Helmand, saying that they were waiting for the IEC to publish its preliminary results. It is due to start issuing those tomorrow.

It cannot issue official, certified results until the Electoral Complaints Commission has investigated all the most serious allegations of fraud — a process that could take several weeks.

The ECC said that it had received 416 complaints as of last night, of which 46 had been categorised as high priority because they could affect the outcome of the election.

Grant Kippen, the ECC chief, said that the allegations mostly involved ballot stuffing, but also included violence, intimidation and problems with the indelible ink that marked voters’ fingers. “We’re going to look into all of this,” he said, warning that the process might not be completed by September 17, as the IEC had suggested.

Mr Abdullah said that his campaign had filed 100 of the complaints to the ECC, including several about southern provinces. He accused Mr Karzai of rigging the vote to compensate for poor turnout in the south, which is dominated by the Pashtun ethnic majority, from which the President hails. Mr Abdullah is half Pashtun and half Tajik but gets most of his support from the Tajik-dominated north, where Mr Karzai’s aides also allege there was widespread fraud.

Mr Abdullah refused to accept Mr Karzai’s claim that he had secured victory in the first round by winning more than 50 per cent.

But Mr Abdullah backed away from his own claim of a first-round victory, saying that he would be happy to participate in a run-off scheduled for October 1, and ruled out protests, which could easily turn violent in a country awash with weapons.

“One thing which I will avoid is to ask for demonstrations because of the fragility of the situation,” he said.

“I’ll try to control emotions and avoid any violence. From the other side I’ll try to fight it legally in whatever way possible.”

And if his legal challenges fail?

“I’ll accept that, even though I know it won’t work and I’ll try in my position as the opposition to bring it on track as much as possible.”

Election doubts

• Mwai Kibaki’s victory in the Kenyan elections last year was thrown into doubt after allegations that people broke into counting centres and added votes while officials slept

• In the 2000 US presidential elections a recount in the swing state of Florida resulted in George W. Bush’s victory by a narrow margin. There were allegations of illegal removal of voters from the electoral roll and road blocks in Democratic regions

• Voters intimidated by threats and violence were so afraid to participate in the Zimbabwe election last year that they allegedly painted their fingers with pink markers — the sign that they had cast their ballot. Electoral rolls were said to have included dead voters and duplicate names

Source: Times database

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks