The United States has "enormous concerns" for restoration of the credibility of the elections process in Afghanistan

The United States has "enormous concerns" for restoration of the credibility of the elections process in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday.

Kerry made the remarks to reporters at the end of annual high-level talks between the U.S. and China.
  
"This is a critical moment of the transition which is essential to the future governance of the country," Kerry told reporters in Beijing, saying he hoped that in the next few days a way would be found for Afghanistan to "grab a hold of the future".
  
Abdullah Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, came second in preliminary results to Ashraf Ghani, but Abdullah said the election was fraudulent and he expected to become the next president.

Kerry said he had been in touch with both candidates "several times", as well as outgoing president Hamid Karzai. "We would encourage both of them to not raise expectations with their supporters, to publicly demonstrate respect for the audit process and the accountability process and also to show critical statesmanship and leadership at a time when Afghanistan obviously needs it," he said.