Atta Mohammad Noor, the Governor of northern Balkh province, in an interview with VOA Dari Service, praised the political agreement made between the presidential candidates but say he refused to recognize Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the “president-elect”.

Noor said he would congratulate Ghani as the president who came out of a political agreement. “I will not congratulate him as president-elect, if I met him face to face, I would refer to him as the president who came out of a political agreement.”

However, the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA) has called on Afghan politicians to embrace the new dynamics set forth by the national unity deal and avoid fomenting discord.

FEFA has said that on the basis of the political agreement and the Constitution, Ghani can be referred to as president-elect. “We call the president 'president-elect', because he has came out of an election process and on the basis of the agreement between candidates, the process is now concluded, our politicians must act with responsibility and foster political consensus,” FEFA Chief Nadir Naderi said.

The transcript of political agreement says that the national unity government has been formed on the basis of the election outcome and the political agreement.

“The political agreement has defined all the things, every step forward, there is no question about it, because the agreement is the criterion, Reforms and Partnership team member Engineer Asim said.

Governor Noor is one of the key allies of Chief Executive-designate Abdullah Abdullah. Though Noor has said that he is undecided about whether to occupy an official post in the next government, but stressed that he will help Abdullah maintain the authorities he won in the negotiations.

On Monday, president-elect Ashraf Ghani said that the national unity government would put an end to all parallel governing structures. Apparently, his comments were directed at Noor.