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Afghan leaders sign power-sharing deal Afghan leaders sign power-sharing deal
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Afghanistan's two presidential candidates have signed a power-sharing deal for the roles of president and chief executive, three months after a disputed runoff threatened to plunge the country into turmoil and complicate the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops. Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates have ended six months of political deadlock by signing a power-sharing agreement that paves the way for the installation of a new president.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who will become president, and Abdullah Abdullah signed the national unity government deal live on television, watched by the outgoing president, Hamid Karzai. The deal follows weeks of negotiations on a power-sharing arrangement following accusations of fraud in the June runoff. In a televised ceremony at the presidential palace on Sunday, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani signed the deal to create a national unity government. The short ceremony was hosted by the outgoing president, Hamid Karzai, and attended by cabinet members, and other high-level government officials.
The deal is a victory for US secretary of state, John Kerry, who first got the candidates to agree in principle to share power during a July visit. Kerry returned to Kabul in August and has spent hours with the candidates in repeated phone calls in an effort to seal the deal. The details of the deal, though leaked to the press, has not yet officially been made public. Conspicuously absent from the signing were the US ambassador, James Cunningham, and head of the UN in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis; both had significant mediating roles during the long negotiations.
As talks dragged out, Abdullah's mostly northern supporters threatened to form a parallel government or react violently to any outright victory by Ghani Adhmadzai, a former finance minister and World Bank official whose power base is in the country's south and east. According to the four-page deal, the winner of the election, Ghani, will be president. The runner-up, Abdullah – or someone he appoints – will become prime minister, or the chief executive officer. The president will run the cabinet and be in charge of strategic functions, while the chief executive will be in charge of daily duties. He will also chair the new council of ministers.
Ghani Ahmadzai said he always maintained that ethnic politics in Afghanistan demand some sort of power-sharing deal and not a winner-takes-all government. Neither candidate appeared elated or particularly content as Karzai gave a short speech in which he congratulated the two candidates and expressed his readiness to help in "finishing the work that the current administration had started".
The deal will see Ghani Ahmadzai replace Karzai as president. Abdullah will hold the newly created post of chief executive, akin to a prime minister. Sunday's ceremony came after months of wrangling between the two parties and their supporters. The latest obstacle came last week when Abdullah asked that the results of the UN-run audit not be made public, a process he deems too mired in fraud. Abdullah had previously boycotted the process, citing "industrial-scale fraud". The claim was not proven during the extensive two-month-long audit. His supporters, who do not consider the audit a fair process, have threatened violence.
Abdullah believes he won the first round of the April election by a margin of more than 50%, which would have precluded a runoff. But the official results showed him winning about 45% of that vote in a crowded presidential field of 10, not quite enough for an outright victory. The results of the audit are due out on Sunday, a move Abdullah supporters have previously tried to block. It remains unclear whether they have been successful to this end; sources say there may be a compromise wherein the percentage of voters is announced without casting them in the light of winners or losers. Preliminary results announced last month have put Ghani in the lead.
He also believes he won a June runoff with Ghani Ahmadzai. But official totals – which the election commission said it would release on Sunday – awarded Ghani Ahmadzai about 55% of the vote. Despite Sunday's ceremony, the two campaigns still disagree on so much, and some fear they will not be able to maintain the precarious union for long. The work that awaits the new administration is immense and will require coordination. Nearly all aspects of life in Afghanistan have come to a halt in the past few months. Among the most urgent is the signing of the bilateral security agreement that will allow foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan beyond this year.
A power-sharing deal was almost sealed about a week ago, but Abdullah then demanded that no vote totals from the runoff be released. During the brief signing ceremony, Ghani and Abdullah remained silent. Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War Through Afghan Eyes, referred to their morose disposition on Twitter. He quoted the Israeli writer Amos Oz, likening the deal as "a fitting Chekhovian end".
UN and Afghan election officials spent weeks auditing the runoff results after allegations of fraud, a common occurrence over Afghanistan's last two presidential elections. But Ghani Ahmadzai's runoff vote total only dropped by about 1% after the audit. Abdullah's side maintained the fraud was so sophisticated it was undetectable. "In the conclusion of the tragedy by Chekohov, everyone is disappointed, disillusioned, embittered, heartbroken, but alive."
In the end, high-stakes negotiations – and not a precise vote tally – appear to have settled the country's power structure.
The US has been pushing for a resolution so the next president can sign a security agreement that would allow about 10,000 US personnel to remain in the country after combat operations wrap up at the end of the year.