Afghanistan: Afghan front-runner Ghani says power-sharing agreement is near --- Afghanistan’s rival presidential candidates will share power under a deal that is within two days of completion, front-runner Ashraf Ghani said Wednesday in an interview with The Washington Post. -- Ghani acknowledged that the long delay in declaring a winner of the June election has weakened Afghanistan and set back its political progress as U.S. and NATO forces prepare to depart by Dec. 31. But he said he and rival Abdullah Abdullah have worked to build a solid new foundation. -- “Of course there is a risk” that the same political differences that forced the election into a United Nations-monitored audit could tear apart any unity government the candidates now form, Ghani said. “But the key is to have a risk-management strategy,” Ghani said. “One reason we’re doing things so carefully is precisely to avoid an unstable government.” -- He predicted an announcement of the audit results and a presidential winner by Saturday. That would give the country only its second elected president, the successor to longtime leader Hamid Karzai. --- The emerging deal would give Abdullah genuine executive power and chief responsibility for “implementing the policies of the government,” Ghani said, as well as the title of chief executive officer. The two men have agreed to call a loya jirga, or tribal council, two years from now to consider changing the country’s constitution to create a post of executive prime minister, Ghani said. -- The new prime minister would not lead parliament, Ghani said. -- “The system will remain presidential” in Afghanistan, Ghani said. -- The president will chair the cabinet, but a new body, called the Council of Ministers, would be headed by the chief executive officer, Ghani said. He did not lay out the exact duties of that body. -- “A winner-take-all formula does not work,” Ghani said. “I consciously have a commitment to making a government of national unity, but of course it is going to face challenges.”