Abdullah, Ghani camps in talks over Afghan election deadlock

KABUL (Reuters) - Representatives of Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani are holding last-minute talks on how to defuse a standoff over the outcome of a presidential election, their spokespeople said on Monday.

Afghanistan is due to announce preliminary results of the vote later in the day and the refusal by either candidate to accept the outcome could plunge the country into a dangerous crisis and split it along ethnic lines.