No results have been declared nearly seven weeks after the election. The protests are another sign of political instability in Afghanistan, already facing a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
Joined by hundreds of supporters, the candidates and members of parliament who had sought re-election denounced the election as illegal.
"We condemn the Sept. 18 election and call it as illegal and ask the government to hold another election," read a banner carried by protesters as they marched past the palace of President Hamid Karzai and UN headquarters.
The protesters later headed to the US embassy and delivered a resolution on the election, lawmaker Daoud Sultanzoy said.
"We said that the results of the election will further worsen Afghanistan's security and force millions of people to head to the mountains" to take up arms, Sultanzoy told Reuters after the demonstration.
"We said this election should be scrapped."
The United Nations was the key organiser of the vote. The United States, which has the bulk of some 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, was among major donors for the elections.
Nearly a quarter of the votes for the lower house of parliament have already been disqualified by the Independent Election Commission (IEC).
Allegations of fraud have also been levelled against the IEC itself, including senior members in the commission. Two weeks after the election, the IEC said its provincial election chief in the eastern province of Khost had been arrested over fraud complaints.
The lawmakers and candidates accuse IEC officials of taking bribes from winning candidates and having their own votes unfairly tossed out.
A deputy attorney general said last week a fraud investigation had been launched into officials at the IEC following allegations from candidates. The investigation is expected to last several weeks.
The credibility of the vote will weigh heavily when US President Barack Obama reviews his Afghanistan strategy in December amid rising violence and sagging public support.
It will also likely be discussed at a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Lisbon this month.
Several of Karzai's ministries are being run by caretakers after parliament rejected numerous nominations this year. Karzai will not be able to put new nominations forward until a new parliament is formed.
Final results were due at the end of October. They have been pushed back by at least several weeks while a UN-backed watchdog sifts through the thousands of complaints.
Western nations have been wary of following Afghan officials in dubbing the election a success after last year's fraud-marred presidential ballot. The top UN envoy in Afghanistan said last month "considerable fraud" had taken place.
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Asadullah Syed
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