Auditing process of votes cast ends

Afghan election votes cast was completed Friday, officials said, but the results will not be known for days as the contentious process of invalidating fraudulent ballots continues.

Both presidential candidates claim to have won the June 14 election, triggering a political stalemate and rising ethnic tension as US-led NATO combat troops withdraw after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.

The United Nations has said the audit results should be finalized by September 10, with the delayed inauguration of President Hamid Karzai’s successor scheduled to be held soon after.

But poll rivals Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah have failed to come to an agreement on a national unity government, which was negotiated under a deal to save the country from slipping back into the ethnic division of the 1990s civil war.

The IEC will now compile results from the audited ballot boxes and decide which of the disputed votes should be thrown out, before a 72-hour window for appeals against its rulings.

Outgoing President Hamid Karzai decided not to travel to the summit, and Afghanistan was instead represented by Defence Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

NATO members had wanted a new president to attend the summit to prove that the country was becoming a functioning state after receiving billions of dollars in military and civilian aid.