Kabul Prepares to Start Huge Audit Under Kerry Deal --- KABUL—Afghanistan is set to begin an unprecedented audit of the 8.1 million votes cast in the June 14 presidential election, a process that is expected to take at least three weeks and will delay the inauguration of a new president. -- Former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah agreed after marathon talks with Secretary of State John Kerry this weekend to a full audit of the bitterly contested election, which had threatened to split the country along ethnic and territorial lines. -- In a political deal also brokered by Mr. Kerry, the two candidates said that in addition to accepting the results of the audit, they agreed that the winner of the election would form a "national unity government" that would include the losing side. -- "This will be still a difficult road, because there are important obligations of the audit," Mr. Kerry said in a late-night briefing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace. "But tonight, Afghanistan saw a moment of what unity can mean." -- As part of a deal to break the deadlock over Mr. Abdullah's allegations of widespread fraud on his rival's behalf, Afghans and the international community now face the herculean task of retrieving all of the ballots cast around the country and scrutinizing each one for signs of fraud. -- "The audit will be carried out in Kabul, and it will begin within 24 hours," Mr. Kerry said late Saturday, adding that the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force would handle the transporting of ballot boxes from the country's 34 provinces. --- Election Officials said audit teams would start forming on Monday, with the audit beginning in earnest as early as Tuesday. -- Members of both camps said on Sunday that some of the technical details of the audit still need to be worked out, signaling the potential for new disagreements. --- Negotiations also lie ahead over the composition of a government of national unity. The new president will formally appoint a "government chief executive officer" picked by the runner-up, according to members of both campaign teams. -- Mr. Saikal described the position as an "executive prime minister" who would be appointed by decree. -- "The agreement will be talked about after the winner is announced," said Daud Sultanzoy, a former presidential candidate who is a spokesman for Mr. Ghani, adding: "National unity doesn't mean one side or two sides, but all sides that are able to solidify national unity in Afghanistan. This is the intention that was announced when Mr. Ghani was registered as a candidate." --- According to the country's Independent Election Commission, 22,828 polling stations were open on June 14. Yusuf Nuristani, the chairman of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, said Sunday the commission's 100 audit teams would scrutinize as many as 1,000 ballot boxes a day for irregularities, with the process taking three weeks. -- The European Union said Sunday that the EU Election Assessment Team "will closely follow the agreed auditing of election results." - More, WSJ, http://online.wsj.com/articles/kabul-prepares-to-start-huge-audit-under-kerry-deal-1405294675