国际英语新闻:Afghan presidential runner Ashraf Ghani urges election body to announce results

KABUL, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on Wednesday urged the country's election commission to announce the results of the lingering election days after his rival Abdullah Abdullah called off talks with Ghani over formation of national unity government.

Afghanistan's presidential election was held on April 5, and since none of the eight contenders succeeded to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, the two front-runners Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani went for a run-off on June 14.

Abdullah who bagged majority of the votes in the first round of the elections and stood second in the runoff had accused the election commission of committing fraud in favor of Ghani and demanded votes audit. "The election audit is over now. We want the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to announce the election result as soon as possible. As the prolong election process has created an uncertainty in the lives of Afghans and a gridlock in the economy of the country,"Ghani told reporters in his house. "As it is the legitimate right of the Afghan people to see the fruit of their sacrifices,"he said.

To solve the election deadlock, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kabul twice in July and August and held meetings with the two hopefuls. 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.

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

On Monday, Abdullah claimed victory in the election process even before the IEC announce the official result of the vote audit. He also suspended talks with Ghani on the formation of a national unity government. Abdullah insisted that he is the winner of the presidential elections if the genuine votes had been separated from the fake one.

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

Also on Monday, the IEC Chairman Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said that the election results would be announced soon irrespective of whether there is an agreement or not between the two candidates on a national unity government.