After weeks of negotiations, the camps of the presidential candidates remain in disagreement on two central issues to resolving their dispute over this year’s election. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, both teams met and appeared relatively optimistic about the possibility of their reaching a satisfying conclusion soon.

With the vote auditing and invalidation processes all wrapped up, pressure on the two presidential candidates to come to an agreement and end the election stalemate has mounted over the past week. Although they have restarted negotiations, including meets with President Hamid Karzai as well as U.S. officials, no progress has been made on two key points of contention between the sides.

According to the campaigns, the distribution of power between the president and the chief executive along with the manner in which the election results will be announced remain the issues unreconciled. The Abdullah Abdullah team has argued for the chief executive to serve as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers while Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and his supporters maintain such a move would be unconstitutional.

Still, despite their differences, both campaigns have presented an air of confidence that there will be an agreement soon.

“The negotiations were conducted between the candidates in a friendly and trusting spirit, but still there are some disputed points that haven’t been settled and an agreement hasn’t been made on them,” Ghani spokesman Faizullah Zaki said on Tuesday.

While not as positive about the prospects of a deal on the near horizon as their opponents seemed to be, the Abdullah camp on Tuesday said they remain hopeful and simply await their opponents consent to their “joint declaration”.

“Given the experience that we had with the previous talks between the candidates, we can’t be very optimistic about the outcome of the talks, but overall, we are hopeful,” Abdullah spokesman Mujiburrahman Rahimi said. “The negotiations will bear results once the Change and Continuity team signs the joint declaration.”

Meanwhile, the ripple effects of this year’s protracted and uncertain election process are continuing to be felt by Afghans of all walks of life. In addition to economic concerns, recently security officials have also voiced concerns about the impact the stalemate is having on counterinsurgency efforts nationwide. The past month and half have seen increasingly bold and aggressive moves by the Taliban and other groups.

The Minister of Defense Bismillah Mohammadi on Tuesday called on the candidates to reach an agreement as soon as possible. “Unfortunately, the election process is prolonged, but we are hopeful that they will reach an agreement, because I have heard some good news and I hope that they can reach an agreement and the problems of the public are resolved,” he said.