KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s electoral commission on Sunday will announce the long-delayed results of the country’s presidential election, as the two rival candidates appeared on the verge of concluding a power-sharing agreement, according to a commission spokesman.
The agreement on a government of national unity will likely pave the way for a contingent of U.S. and NATO troops to remain in the country after the end of this year.
Noor Mohammed Noor, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission, said Saturday that the final results were based on a “100 percent audit of all the ballots cast” in the second round of the presidential election, held in June.
After the initial count, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani emerged as the winner, but his rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah — who led after the first round of elections in April — claimed widespread fraud.
Both campaigns have stressed they would abide by the results of a U.N.-supervised recount of all 8 million votes cast.
That recount was completed last week, but results have not been released in anticipation of the announcement of a government of national unity between Ghani and Abdullah. The two campaigns have been wrangling for weeks over a U.S. proposal to create a new executive director for the cabinet, and the authority the post would have. Abdullah, as the losing candidate, would presumably take over the post or appoint an aide to fill it when the new cabinet is formed.
Officials from both camps have said the accord would be signed at a public ceremony attended by outgoing President Hamid Karzai.
The U.S. and NATO are anxious for a president to be named, as the clock is ticking on the deadline for all foreign combat troops to withdraw by the end of the year.
The terms for a follow-on mission of nearly 10,000 U.S. forces acting mostly as advisers and trainers are laid out in a bilateral security agreement drafted early this year. But Karzai refused to sign it. Both candidates have said they would, but until they do, a similar NATO agreement is also on hold.
U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham, along with other NATO diplomats and U.N. special envoy Jan Kubis, have attended the talks in an effort to help reach agreement on the joint government.
Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report.
