Former\u00a0finance\u00a0minister Ashraf Ghani was named Afghanistan’s president-elect on Sunday after he signed a deal to share power with his opponent, ending months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilized the nation as most foreign troops prepare to leave.<\/p>\n
The announcement withheld the final election numbers, apparently as part of the political deal between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who claimed the process was rigged against him.<\/p>\n
“The Independent Election Commission of\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0declares Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the president of Afghanistan,” commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said.<\/p>\n
The full results would be provided at a later date, Nuristani said, but did not say when. He acknowledged deep flaws in the June 14 run-off vote and said a U.N.-supervised audit was not adequate to weed out all the vote-rigging.<\/p>\n
“Although the audit was comprehensive … (it) could not detect or throw out fraud completely,” Nuristani said, without taking further questions.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the unity government deal signed on Sunday, Ghani will share power with a chief executive proposed by Abdullah. The two will share control over who leads key institutions such as the Afghan army and other executive decisions.<\/p>\n
The new administration faces huge challenges in fighting an emboldened Taliban-led insurgency and paying its bills amid plummeting tax revenue.<\/p>\n
It will also face significant difficulty in improving the lives of Afghans who face hard times as aid flows fall and as contracts with the NATO-led coalition dry up as most foreign troops leave by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
SECURITY AGREEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n The accord signed on Sunday was the finalization of a broader power-sharing structure brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who swiftly welcomed its signing.<\/p>\n “These two men have put the people of\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0first, and they’ve ensured that the first peaceful democratic transition in the history of their country begins with national unity.”<\/p>\n One of Ghani’s first acts would be to sign a long-delayed bilateral security agreement with the United States, as he has previously declared support for the pact to allow a small force of foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.<\/p>\n There is a risk that any instability could be exploited by neighbors, like\u00a0Pakistan, whose past involvement in Afghan affairs have played a part in the conflicts that have dogged Afghanistan for decades.<\/p>\n “A difficult and challenged unity structure is still preferable to conflict between these two groups,” said a U.S. official in Kabul.<\/p>\n “Having them both working together within the government and direct their energies toward positive reform is again preferable to some of the alternatives.”<\/p>\n Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, and Abdullah, whose main support comes from the country’s second largest ethnic group, the Tajiks, face a difficult task forging unity in a country riven by ethnic and tribal rivalries.<\/p>\n Abdullah’s accusations that the run-off election was rigged in Ghani’s favor had raised fears of ethnic violence, which could have ignited a broader conflict.<\/p>\n “A spark could have dealt a strong blow to the political process, if today’s deal had not happened,” commented Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies. “But, we have crossed that moment.”<\/p>\n Ghani is expected to be sworn in as president in about a week, according to Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi.<\/p>\n The settlement will also come as a relief for Afghans, who have watched the tortuous process play out since they first voted in April.<\/p>\n Hamid Karzai has ruled since soon after the Taliban government was ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, and the drawn-out election was meant to mark the first democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan’s troubled history.<\/p>\n “Afghanistan will now be able to move forward for the next five years, even though it is not an ideal government,” Rahmani said.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former\u00a0finance\u00a0minister Ashraf Ghani was named Afghanistan’s president-elect on Sunday after he signed a deal to share power with his opponent, ending months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilized the nation as most foreign troops prepare to leave. The announcement withheld the final election numbers, apparently as part of the political deal between Ghani […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":49890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n