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Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani celebrate on the street after he was named president-elect in Kabul September 21, 2014.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's election commission on Sunday pronounced Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai the winner of the country's presidential election, but it withheld an announcement of the total votes won, despite an exhaustive and costly audit process overseen by the United Nations and financed by the US government.

The suppression of the vote totals was apparently the final step necessary for the two presidential candidates to sign a US-brokered agreement to form a power-sharing government, giving the runner-up, Abdullah Abdullah, substantial powers in what is, in effect, the post of prime minister.

The two men signed that deal even before Ahmadzai was formally declared the winner by the Independent Election Commission later in the day.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai signs a power-sharing agreement with unseen rival Abdullah Abdullah at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on September 21, 2014.

On Saturday, Abdullah's aides said he would refuse to agree to the deal unless the vote totals were kept secret, since he regards the election as heavily tainted by fraud.

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Critics of the election commission claimed that it had been pressured by the international community not to announce the results to get Abdullah back on board with the agreement.

Democracy advocates were aghast at the whole process, although US diplomats hailed it as Afghanistan's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power.

"Many people risked their lives to vote, some lost their lives, and this is a very bad precedent; to persuade people to come back and vote again will be very hard," said Nader Nadery, chairman of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan gets new president, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai