What was at stake after the election was made clear by Eide Tuesday. 'The political establishment must come together to demonstrate ... a unity of purpose after the elections. Afghanistan cannot afford anything else. A national consensus must be formed to address the most critical problems this country faces.'

Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent policy research organisation, shared the fears of election fraud. He said Afghans from across the political spectrum have told him that manipulation in Thursday's election would be worse than that seen in 2004.

He said there are not enough Afghan or foreign election observers, who number 271,000, and expressed particular concern about polling stations where no observers would be present.

'We face a series of black holes,' he said. 'What will take place in these black holes during the election is anybody's guess.'

Large-scale corruption was feared in the south, where Karzai's loyalists were trying to persuade the Independent Election Commission to open more than 400 polling centres deep inside the Taliban heartland with large numbers of Pashtun voters, Karzai's power base.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president's brother and head of the Kandahar provincial council in the south, said he had struck a deal with several Taliban commanders to allow voting to take place in their areas.

Amrullah Saleh, head of the Afghan intelligence service, also said Taliban fighters in Kandahar and Helmand provinces have agreed to allow balloting.

However, the Independent Election Commission has said it would not open polling centres in areas that could not be secured by Afghan security forces. Commission officials said they fear that without security forces or election observers overseeing the process, the ballot boxes would be stuffed with fraudulent votes.

Ruttig said free and fair elections were not realistic in Afghanistan but the priority was what Afghans would think of the voting. 'It's about elections that are acceptable for Afghans, but I doubt whether that will be the case here,' Ruttig said.

Sima Samar, chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, was more hopeful: 'Nowhere in the world can we ensure 100 percent fair elections, and what is important is to make sure that the people of Afghanistan can participate in the elections and the results are accepted by them.

'As an Afghan I am confident that we have survived so many years of war and will be able to be successful in these elections too.'