Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met with Alice Wells, the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, on Tuesday at the Presidential Palace, President Ghani’s office released in a statement.

Both discussed issues related to the presidential election, peace, security and regional relations.
Wells praised the successful holding of election day, saying the elections are important to consolidate the foundations of democracy.
Meanwhile, Ghani said that the independence of the electoral commissions and their decisions must be respected, and added that no candidate should claim victory before the results are announced by the electoral commissions.
The US Embassy in Kabul in a tweet on October 9 called on “everyone to respect the time required” for the Afghan election organizations to finish processing the votes, saying it is “better to be right than fast.”
Recently the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also praised the Afghans’ courage for taking part in the elections, but he said that all necessary steps need to be taken to ensure the transparency of the process.
Ghani said that there is a broad consensus for achieving a dignified and sustainable peace and that the peace process is a priority for the current and future government, the statement added.
This comes after NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that the alliance welcomes the resumption of peace talks between the US and Taliban, on the condition that the Taliban shows a “willingness to make real compromises at the negotiating table.”