British Foreign Secretary voices 'concerns' over Afghan vote fraud

"We will not be party to any whitewash when it comes to the elections," Miliband told BBC television.

"That's why the United Nations established the electoral complaints commission, it's why they've dismissed the results from 83 polling stations, so of course we have concerns about very serious allegations of fraud."

The vote monitoring body on Thursday ordered for the first time that ballots be scrapped from 83 polling stations in three provinces after finding "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" in the August 20 elections.

Miliband expressed confidence in the commission's work, saying: "It would be wrong to make allegations without the facts, but the electoral complaints commission... is going to get to the bottom of that."

He acknowledged that the time it was taking to count the ballots was difficult to understand for people in Britain, where -- as in most other developed nations -- election results come through within hours.