The Taleban threatened to attack polling stations and candidates during Afghanistan’s second presidential election, due to be held next summer, as the lengthy and dangerous process of voter registration began yesterday.

The chief spokesman for Mullah Omar, the Taleban’s leader, told The Times that the group would use its increasing influence in the country to disrupt the poll. “This is not an election, it is a joke that is putting dust in people’s eyes,” said Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. “Where will they have an election? How much of Afghanistan belongs to the Government and foreign troops?”

The poll is seen as a crucial test of the credibility of the fragile Western-backed Government and the seven-year reconstruction effort. The Taleban made little attempt to oppose elections in 2004 and 2005, and Afghan officials have expressed hope that it will allow the democratic process set for August 2009.

Azzizullah Luddin, the head of the Afghanistan Independent Electoral Commission, told The Times: “My expectation is that they don’t attack. My hope is that they will allow the people to vote.”

A total of 12.5 million Afghans registered to vote in the 2004 presidential election. With a 75 per cent turnout it was hailed as a triumph, with Hamid Karzai returned as President amid high expectations. However, despite modest progress in reconstruction in some areas, the four years since have seen a steady decline in security, with parts of the south and southeast now inaccessible to the Government because of Taleban activity and widespread criminality.

The standing of the Karzai administration has also been eroded by corruption at all levels, much of it fuelled by the opium trade. Yesterday fresh allegations appeared in the American media concerning President Karzai’s brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, and the heroin trade. He denied the claims and threatened legal action.

Western officials in Kabul said that the election challenge was greater than in 2004. “The environment is significantly more difficult,” said a UN diplomat. “The Taleban was much weaker then.”

Officials compared the insecurity in the country to that facing Iraq in 2006 when it held elections, but added that a significant additional strain on the process was the low level of education among ordinary Afghans. Western diplomats point out that 80 per cent of the Afghan police force overseeing much of the security organisation of the election are illiterate. All election materials have to be printed with pictorial explanations.

Election officials said yesterday that the security situation was hampering efforts to move registration materials to district centres in insurgency-hit areas in the east of the country. The registration process is scheduled to occur in four stages, with work in the most dangerous areas not due to begin until November.

The Nato commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, said this week that he needed an additional 14,000 troops to counter instability, particularly on the Pakistan border.

On the streets of Kabul, many voters seemed apprehensive about the election. “I feel shame that I voted for Karzai before and I never vote for him again,” said Mohammad Azzam Khan, 28, from Kandahar. His friend, who did not want to be named, said: “This is not an Afghan election. Whoever is chosen by America will be the president.”

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