. >> reporter: the other candidate, ashraf gani, comfortably ahead in the disp e disputed count, heldeeting with the u.s. forces in kabul yesterday. he said the abdullah protest has come too late. >> if 75% of the process has been vetted in the presence of international observers, under the provisions of the united nations, how can they say this will not be a fair process? >> reporter: and now ashraf gani's campaign team has pulled out, too, at the request of the u.n., who will supervise the process on their own alongside afghan election officials. the decision by abdullah's team to withdraw from observing the audit process means many afghans will never accept that it's fair. and it makes major street protests far more likely. a breakdown in law and order would only encourage the taliban and make international donors cut funds more quickly. failure to deal with fraud here could have dire consequences. david loyn, bbc news, kabul. >>> now, it's not often a football team in the third tier of english football become a worldwide trends on social media, but that's what happened when mk don

both he and ashraf gani claim to have won june's election. i spoke to our correspondent david loyn, who's in the afghan capital kabul. he told me the recount appears to have been abandoned and is currently at a standstill. >> reporter: well, the u.n. said last night that they would continue it and they would put in more observers to ensure fairness, but that hand happened. i can say now that the whole process has been paralyzed. abdullah abdullah's campaign workers didn't show up. u.n. workers who came to monitor the vote saw tables that weren't manned at all. no gani campaign workers were there at all. and there's now complete paralysis. this is just at the final stage when with the invalidation process exactly deciding which the clean votes were and which the dirty votes were is supposed to have been going on. and it's that that abdullah's campaign are complaining about. they say not enough of the fraudulent votes. they say most fraudulent votes were for gani. this feels like a very dangerous moment for afghanistan. >> exactly, yeah. explai