US Secretary of State John Kerry is to hold a second day of talks with Afghanistan´s feuding presidential hopefuls, seeking a deal to audit over 8000 ballot boxes.
Despite back-to-back meetings on Friday with rivals Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani and other officials that stretched deep into the night, US officials said an accord was not yet on the table.
The deadlock over last month´s run-off vote to succeed outgoing President Hamid Karzai has plunged Afghanistan into crisis and dented US hopes of a smooth transfer of power as Washington seeks to withdraw all its troops by late 2016.Kerry was to meet Saturday first with Abdullah and then with Ghani, US officials said.
While Ghani´s campaign has embraced the UN plan, Abdullah´s team remains sceptical arguing the proposals to review some 35 percent of all votes does not address all their concerns.
On Friday Kerry stressed that results released on Monday showing Ghani in the lead with some 56 percent of the vote were only “preliminary”.
“We want a unified, stable, democratic Afghanistan. It is important that whoever is president is recognised by the people as having become president through a legitimate process,” he said.
Abdullah, who has already lost one presidential bid in controversial circumstances, has declared himself the true winner, saying massive fraud robbed him of victory in the June 14 run-off vote.
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