The Taliban is aiming to reach a withdrawal agreement with the US by the end of January and is prepared to “scale down” military operations ahead of signing the deal, the Taliban's chief spokesman in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told Pakistan’s daily newspaper Dawn on January 18.

Differences have emerged between the two main electoral bodies – the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) – over the recount of votes from 5,400 polling stations, determined after assessing 16,500 complaints.