Afghanistan’s Abdullah Abdullah, who contested election results that declared his bitter rival and incumbent Ashraf Ghani as the president-elect, has postponed a plan for a parallel swearing-in ceremony, a spokesman for Abdullah said on Monday.

The move followed the intervention of U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, said Omid Maisam, the spokesman, adding that it was contingent on Ghani also postponing his own swearing-in.
Both men issued invitations last week to parallel inauguration ceremonies on Monday, after Abdullah had disputed last month’s decision by Afghanistan’s Electoral Commission to name Ghani as the winner of September’s election.
However, a member of Ghani’s team, Shah Hussain Murtazavi, told Reuters that nothing had changed and Ghani’s inauguration was going ahead as scheduled.
“The guest arrival has just started and we will have our ceremony in a few hours,” said Murtazavi.