US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday sought to push Afghanistan’s election crisis towards a rapid resolution, cajoling rival presidential candidates to end their perilous stand-off as NATO troops withdraw

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday sought to push Afghanistan's election crisis towards a rapid resolution, cajoling rival presidential candidates to end their perilous stand-off as NATO troops withdraw.
  
Kerry, on his second visit to Kabul within weeks, set a target for the new president to be in office by the end of this month despite a dispute between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah over alleged electoral fraud.
  
The threat of political chaos looms large in Afghanistan after Abdullah refused to accept a preliminary vote count that put Ghani ahead, saying that the election had been stolen by massive ballot-box stuffing.
  
In talks on Friday, Kerry tried to secure progress on a deal he brokered last month in which the winner would be chosen by an anti-fraud audit of all eight million votes, followed by the formation of a national unity government.