Talks on a power sharing deal between Afghanistan’s rival presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, have collapsed, a top leader said on Monday, rekindling fears of ethnic unrest over the disputed vote.

Talks on a power sharing deal between Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, have collapsed, a top leader said on Monday, rekindling fears of ethnic unrest over the disputed vote.

Under the terms of a deal brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the runner-up in the election would name a "chief executive" in a unity government conceived to keep the lid on political tensions.

But Mohammad Mohaqeq, one of Abdullah's vice presidential running mates, told Reuters the two sides could not agree on the powers of the chief executive, blaming the Ghani camp for hardening its position.

Abdullah's team has walked out of a U.N. audit of votes from a June 2 run-off ballot, saying it was dissatisfied with the way that fraudulent votes were being handled.
While Abdullah won the most votes in a first round in April, he didn't pass a 50 percent threshold to win outright. After the country's election commission announced Ghani the preliminary winner in the second round, Abdullah threatened to form a parallel government, accusing his rival of stealing votes.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Abdullah campaign said he would withdraw from the political process if his demands were not met by Tuesday. "We are reaching the limit of our patience, we are giving a deadline until tomorrow," Fazel Sancharika told a news conference.
The United Nations hopes to complete the audit of 8 million votes by around Sept. 10, clearing the way for Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power.
The prolonged political transition comes at a time of deep anxiety in Afghanistan as the United States, Kabul's biggest aid donor, and other NATO nations withdraw their troops after nearly 13 years of fighting Taliban insurgents.