The lights are flashing red on the Afghan dashboard. With American and NATO forces heading for the door in 2014 and the next presidential election scheduled for the same year, time is running out to secure a peaceful and stable future for Afghanistan. Over ten years after the fall of the Taliban, many of the hopes and aspirations that Afghan's had for the future are fast evaporating.

Violence and insecurity continue to plague the daily lives of ordinary Afghans. Corruption robs them of desperately needed basic government services. And the economy is heading towards a fiscal shock as troops depart with their military budgets, leaving a huge hole in the national economy.

Never has the question of Afghanistan's future leader been more critical. Without a credible leader, elected freely and fairly, the prospect of the country sliding back into civil war or widespread factional fighting after 2014 is a worrying possibility.

The last Afghan presidential election, in which Hamid Karzai secured a second and final term, was a highly contentious affair. Afghans complained of foreign interference while international concern over widespread fraud grew.

The parliamentary elections of 2010 offered little comfort for those hoping electoral lessons would be learnt. Again, the polls were marred by widespread ballot stuffing, duplicate voting and voter intimidation. A significant number of election results were also overturned not by the legitimate electoral authorities but controversially by a Special Election Tribunal set up by President Karzai in the aftermath of the polls.

The political landscape facing Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission in 2014 will be far more fractured than past elections with a resurgent Northern Alliance, a growing conservative Pashtun "coalition" opposed to western influence and weakened liberal modernisers pushing for reform.

The impartiality and credibility of the poll will be crucial in delivering a result that is accepted peacefully by all candidates and their voters. The countdown for the next election in 2014 has already begun. With Afghanistan's constitution preventing Karzai from standing again there will be a vacancy for the top job.

Whoever wins will face the daunting task of bringing together Afghanistan's political factions under the umbrella of a likely peace deal with the Taliban. The stakes couldn't be higher for the Afghan people or the international community.

Unsurprisingly many Afghans have become disillusioned with elections in their country. There is a wide spread belief amongst voters that past polls have been fixed by diplomatic interference, backroom political deals and rampant fraud committed at ballot stations.

Trust in Afghanistan's nascent electoral institutions remains worryingly weak. Earlier this year President Karzai appointed all five commissioners to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) with little or no consultation with the Afghan parliament, political parties or civil society organisations.

There have been concerted efforts by the Afghan authorities to minimise and undermine the role of the United Nations as an impartial arbiter during the next election with the removal of UN appointed international electoral experts from Afghanistan's Election Complaints Commission (ECC), which is tasked with investigating and disqualifying fraud from the poll.

Afghanistan deserves better. The Afghan authorities must act now to secure the credibility of a poll that will decide the leadership for a post transition Afghan state. Without urgent reform of Afghanistan's electoral laws we are likely to see a repeat of the industrial levels of fraud that have undermined previous polls. "Phantom" voters must be removed from the voter registry before the next election.

Appointments to the electoral institutions must be made with the broad support of the Afghan parliament and civil society. The security and location of polling stations must be reviewed to prevent fraudulent votes from non-existent "ghost polling stations" undermining the integrity of the next election.

The international community must also demonstrate its impartiality in both words and actions. The United Nations has a key role to play in this effort by pushing to regain some of the ground it has lost as an impartial arbiter and advisor to the Afghan electoral authorities.

The challenges facing Afghanistan are huge. A credible democratic election in 2014 for Afghans to decide their own way offers the best chance of fostering a stable future for the war wracked nation. As Without a robust commitment to impartiality from the international community and the Afghan authorities, the red lights on Afghanistan's dashboard are only likely to flash brighter and faster.