KABUL- The leading opposition candidate and an American diplomat are questioning the impartiality of the United Nations in Afghanistan’s disputed August 20th election.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah accused Kai Eide, the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, of being bias towards incumbent President Hamid Karzai and blocking the release of a report detailing wide spread fraud – adding that Eide’s actions had “severely damaged” the credibility of the U.N.

Meanwhile, in an editorial in the Washington Post, Eide’s recently sacked deputy, veteran American diplomat Peter Galbraith, said he was  “ordered not to pursue the issue of fraud.”

“Eide ordered me not to discuss the ghost polling centers any further,” writes Galbraith. “On Election Day, these sites produced hundreds of thousands of phony Karzai votes.”

Last week, Galbraith was removed from his post as Eide’s deputy after alleging that the head of the United Nation’s mission in Afghanistan had acted to conceal the extent of fraud in the election.

Dr Abduallah claims that the U.N. election report shows that more than a million of President Karzai’s votes are “ghost ballots.”

Currently, President Karzai, with 55% of the vote, has a significant lead over Dr. Abdullah. But if enough votes are declared invalid, Karzai’s lead could shrink and drop below 50% — forcing a run-off between the two candidates.

Dr. Abdullah refused to say if Mr Eide should be removed from his position as U.N. envoy to Afghanistan but he described Galbraith as a “brave official who stood for principles enshrined in the UN Charter. Principles of democracy, justice, transparency and fairness.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report