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Ashraf Ghani elected president of Afghanistan

Ashraf Ghani named president of Afghanistan after months of auditing votes.

By Danielle Haynes

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Ashraf Ghani on Sunday was named the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election, more than three months after voters headed to the polls.

By early July, preliminary election results showed Ghani, the country's finance minister, had a lead over challenger Abdullah Abdullah in the June 14 run-off election.

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Abdullah challenged those results and called for an audit — overseen by the United Nations and paid for by the U.S. government — to be performed on the results.

It took a couple months, but the vote totals are in and Ghani is the official winner of the election.

After months of squabbling and accusations of voter fraud, Abdullah and Ghani signed a power-sharing agreement, putting Abdullah in essentially the post of prime minister. Abdullah said he would only sign the agreement if the final vote totals were kept secret because he considered the election fraudulent.

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