Afghan Presidential Rivals Agree to Vote Audit --- KABUL—Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates agreed to a full audit of the June 14 runoff election, breaking a political stalemate over the vote's outcome after two days of intense diplomacy by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. -- "The audit will be carried out in Kabul, and it will begin within 24 hours," Mr. Kerry said Saturday, standing next to the two candidates, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, in the Afghan capital. -- Mr. Kerry said the audit would cover "every single vote that was cast" in the election and would take place under international supervision. --- Ballot boxes, Mr. Kerry added, will be transported to Kabul from the provinces by the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force. The United Nations, Mr. Kerry said, has asked the Afghan government to postpone a planned Aug. 2 inauguration to accommodate the audit, which is expected to take weeks. -- Afghans went to the polls last month to choose between two contenders to succeed President Hamid Karzai, in an election that was supposed to mark the first democratic transfer of power in the nation's history. -- But rather than paving the way to a political transition, the election led to a crisis. On Monday, the country's Independent Election Commission released preliminary results tipping Mr. Ghani as the likely winner of the runoff vote, with 56.4% of the ballots cast against Mr. Abdullah's 43.6%. -- Mr. Abdullah cried foul, saying that industrial-scale ballot stuffing was carried out on his opponent's behalf. The former foreign minister declared himself victor and threatened to establish a parallel government. Some of his most prominent supporters described the preliminary vote announcement as a "coup" and said they would no longer recognize the authority of Mr. Karzai as president. -- Mr. Kerry acknowledged that allegations of fraud had already battered confidence in the process. -- "Charges of fraud and other irregularities have cast a pall over what should have been a triumphant moment for the Afghan people," he said. --- Mr. Kerry arrived in Kabul early Friday and launched a marathon series of negotiations, meeting with the rival candidates, Mr. Karzai and many of the country's main power players. In addition to talks with Messrs. Ghani and Abdullah, Mr. Kerry met with Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, Interior Minister Umar Daudzai and intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil. -- Discussions on Saturday lasted around 14 hours. --- "Our agreement is simple: we have committed to the thoroughest audit in the history of any election in the developed or developing countries," Mr. Ghani said. "100% of all the ballots will be audited, thereby removing any ambiguity of the process or our accountability to the will of the people." -- In addition to promising to abide by the results of the election after the audit, the two candidates said they would agree to a government of national unity regardless of who emerges as president. -- "We have a framework of a national-unity government once the votes are cleaned," Mr. Abdullah said. -- U.S. and international officials, including President Barack Obama, had lobbied Mr. Abdullah to wait for the results of an audit that would separate legitimate from fraudulent ballots. -- On the eve of Mr. Kerry's arrival, Mr. Karzai endorsed a plan forwarded by the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive audit that would separate fraudulent ballots from valid votes. That U.N. proposal would have involved an audit of 8,050 polling stations, covering around 3.5 million ballots, or 44% of all ballots cast. - More, WSJ, http://online.wsj.com/articles/kerry-afghans-seek-to-resolve-election-stalemate-1405146520?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303473204580024422951330574.html