In a scathing attack on the international community days ahead of the poll, the former finance minister and World Bank official said there was little to show for the $1bn (€699m, £602m) set aside for safeguarding the election. UN agencies were “asleep at the wheel”.

Officials say the threat of attack could close as many as 10 per cent of polling stations for the August 20 election. The independent election commission said the total number of stations could be as low as 6,200, compared with earlier estimates of almost 7,000.

A Taliban-led insurgency, which began soon after the US-led invasion in 2001, has intensified this year. The insurgents have called on Afghans to boycott the polls and have threatened to disrupt them with violence.

Yesterday 14 people were killed in two roadside blasts in Helmand and Kandahar.

Elsewhere three British soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan, taking Britain’s military death toll to 199. A fourth soldier was injured.

Mr Ghani said the international community had regarded the election as “an open-and-shut case”, with the winner already identified. The mood of hope and heroism in the 2004 election had ebbed away as the population faced a “flawed process” overshadowed by threats of force .

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