A pamphlet widely distributed by Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission says it all in only three pictures.

They have forbidding red lines through them. In one, two men exchange a fistful of bank notes. In a second, a young man in white tunic and waistcoat thrusts a revolver into another's chest. In the third, a family patriarch holds up four voting cards and stuffs three ballots into a box.

The three evils of this week's presidential and provincial elections were bribery, violent intimidation and proxy voting. The worst, and most successful, of these was intimidation.

In the run-up to the election, the ECC, the poll's independent arbitration body, received fewer complaints than five years ago, when President Hamid Karzai won. Nearly 450 complaints appeared modest in a competitively fought campaign that had leading presidential candidates traversing the country and seeking votes beyond their traditional ethnic bases.

As one European Union election observer explained, the complaints ranged from a torn poster to assassination and kidnapping threats against rival candidates.

But the complaints are likely to increase rapidly. Sayed Jalal Karim, a presidential candidate with ribbon-wrapped gifts as his party symbol, was yesterday crying foul. "There is a big fraud all over the country. I was not expecting to win - but I did expect to do 10 times better. In the areas that I should have done well, the results are coming out in favour of Mr Karzai."

Many of the grosser causes for complaint will never be lodged. Possibly millions of Afghans were denied a vote because they were simply afraid. Taliban militants had launched a broad offensive against the election, and had threatened to visit a range of colourful punishments on those who voted.

So Afghanistan's southern Pashtun-belt, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, was largely cut out of the election. Countrywide, 268 violent acts were reported. Many were in southern provinces like Kandahar, Khost and Paktiya. Some were further north, such as in Baghlan.

Reports by local police and the Independent Election Commission show a litany of terror tactics, from burning half-full ballot boxes to rocket attacks.

The International Republican Institute, a US not-for-profit organisation, said violence rather than voter apathy explained an extraordinary fall-off in voter participation. A poll in July showed 90 per cent of Afghans intended to vote.

"What happened in between?" asked Richard Williamson, head of the IRI's observation mission.

The answer is the Taliban insurgency happened.

Yesterday, the group that ruled Afghanistan until 2001 claimed turnout was a mere 10 per cent, compared with the 40-50 per cent estimated by the Independent Election Commission.

"Whoever is the successful candidate . . . is the slave of the Americans. The vote has no legitimacy," said a Taliban spokesman in the south west.

Missions such as the IRI did not send observers to the south, leaving monitoring to local observers.

Before the south was excluded from this week's vote, it faced deeper exclusion from the economy. The insurgency and its deleterious effect on a government accused of being directionless exacts a price.

Ashraf Ghani, a presidential candidates and former finance minister, says the nation urgently needs a raft of job formation schemes and overhaul of financial institutions to help free up capital flows. Few disagree.

Kabul, the capital, has armed security men on almost every corner. It also has an almost prosperous atmosphere - with bustling streets and shops selling car parts, fabrics, electronic goods and groceries. After the Taliban's fall, the city was flooded by electronic goods, largely banned by the ruling regime, and traders. Now it prospers on aid and the presence of the international community.

Once dubbed the "city of darkness", Kabul's electricity supply has improved from two hours a day to 22. Reliable power has industrial possibilities. Mr Karzai's office talks of water resources and contracts with Chinese companies to develop copper assets.

But economic growth is falling, aid budgets tightening. A largely agriculture-based economy is sensitive to drought and food prices. The International Monetary Fund forecast Afghanistan's economic growth would fall to 3.4 per cent last year from about 12 per cent in the previous year.

That hints at what, after security, persists as one of the biggest issues for the next government. When Kamal Agha, a shopkeeper in Kabul, voted on Thursday, he experienced none of the ECC's three evils. For him, reason for complaint lies ahead, unless there is rapid change and more effective government.

"Mr Karzai is a good man. But he promises a lot and doesn't do enough," he said. "What we need is someone who will bring peace and new jobs."

Additional reporting by Ahmad Wali Sarhadi