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Announce Afghan poll results: presidential candidate Ghani

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IANS Kabul
Last Updated : Sep 10 2014 | 10:56 PM IST

Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Wednesday urged the country's Election Commission to announce the results after his rival Abdullah Abdullah called off talks with him over formation of national unity government.

Abdullah, who bagged majority of the votes in the first round of elections and stood second in the run-off, had accused the Election Commission of committing fraud in favour of Ghani and demanded a vote audit.

The recounting of votes and auditing process was over last Thursday.

"The election audit is over now. We want the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to announce the election result as soon as possible, as the prolonged election process has created uncertainty in the lives of Afghans and a gridlock in the country's economy," Xinhua quoted Ghani as saying.

US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kabul twice in July and August and held meetings with the two hopefuls to solve the election deadlock.

Kerry was able to broker a deal between them under which the winner would become president and the loser chief executive, a post equal to that of prime minister in a national unity government.

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The two rivals had accepted an audit of nearly 8 million ballots which lasted for 50 days and the audit process ended Sep 4.

However, Abdullah Monday claimed victory in the presidential election.

"Based on the genuine votes cast in the election process, I am the winner," Abdullah said, adding that a transparent and fair election is the foundation for durable peace and stability in Afghanistan.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday urged the two candidates to reach an agreement on a government of national unity in accordance with the one they reached in July.

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First Published: Sep 10 2014 | 10:50 PM IST

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