KABUL: The final results of the country’s presidential election will be released on Sunday following a weeks-long audit for fraudulent ballots, says a spokesman for Afghanistan’s election commission.

Noor Mohammad Noor said Saturday that the election commission has finished its work and will announce results on Sunday.

Two months of crisis over the election to replace President Hamid Karzai have further destabilized violence-plagued Afghanistan as foreign troops prepare to withdraw at year’s end, leaving Afghan forces to fight the Taleban insurgency.

The announcement would bring the country’s more than five-month-long election process to a close. Ballots were cast in a first round in April and again in June in a two-man run-off.

The two candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have been negotiating a power-sharing agreement that would divide responsibilities between the president and the newly created office of chief executive. Those talks have been dragging on for weeks despite consistent mediation by phone from US Secretary of State John Kerry. The rival candidates — former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah — were meeting on Saturday. Aides said they were close to finalising a deal but an Abdullah spokesman threatened to pull out of the talks if the poll results were released before an agreement.