Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah’s electoral team has announced that outcomes of the vote audit process will not be acceptable to them, adding that the political negotiations between the electoral camps have not reached any positive outcomes.
“Further political discussions must be on the basis of a new framework; Dr. Abdullah has clarified this to Dr. Ghani during their negotiations," Syed Hussain Fazel Aqa Sancharaki, Abdullah's spokesman, said on Thursday. "Continuing the audit is illogical; we will not accept the results as the process does not have any credibility to us."
Furthermore, Sancharaki declared that the electoral team would pursue further negotiations "from the position of the winners."
"We are the winners of the first and second rounds of the elections so we will talk from the position of the president."
This is while the rival team, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's camp, has stressed on the continuation of political talks between the candidates, expressing optimism over reaching final agreements within 48 hours.
“The candidates met yesterday with a spirit of trust. No new agenda was discussed; the talks focused on some of the previously disputed topics without any conclusive decisions," Tahir Zuhair, Ghani's spokesman, said. "Meetings between the candidates will continue."
In addition, Zuhair stated that the camp will endorse the election commission's decisions regardless of the election outcomes.
"The Transformation and Continuity Team [Ghani's team] will accept the election results whatever they may be," he said. "We will endorse the results because we want to protect the interests of the nation," he explained.
Abdullah's camp has said that the candidates have disagreements over eight main issues. This is while Ghani's camp maintains that the candidates have disagreements over few issues only, explaining that the disagreements are mostly about the authority of the chief executive and whether or not he will also serve as the head of the council of ministers.
Even though disagreements between the electoral teams prevail, President Karzai has emphasized that the inauguration ceremony--scheduled for this Monday-- should not be postponed. As tensions increase, it remains unclear how the political situation in the country will unwind.