KABUL : Afghan election contender Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday congratulated President-elect Ashraf Ghani on his victory and vowed to support him in a national unity government. Election officials on Sunday named Ghani as the winner, but declined to release the margin of victory or the turnout - triggering accusations that the result lacked transparency. Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah struck an agreement Sunday to form a “unity government”, after months of disputes over who was the rightful winner of the fraud-tainted June 14 presidential election.
In the “national unity government”, Ghani will become president and Abdullah will serve as chief executive - a new role similar to prime minister.
“I want to congratulate Dr. Ashraf Ghani the future president of Afghanistan and thank him for his stance on the political deal for creating a national unity government,” Abdullah said addressing a big gathering of his supporters.
“The political deal that results in the creation of the national unity government is the best alternative and best choice for the people of Afghanistan,” he said. “If you see the current situation of Afghanistan, there is no better alternative,” he said. “This national unity team, God willing... will join hands and cooperate” he added.
The two men must now govern Afghanistan as international funding declines and US-led combat troops pull out by the end of this year after fighting the Taliban since 2001. The chief executive could become the official prime minister in two years’ time - a major change to the strongly presidential style of government laid out in the constitution.
Coalition relations could prove tricky after the two campaigns traded allegations of ballot-box stuffing in the race to succeed President Hamid Karzai, who will hand over power at an inauguration ceremony next week. The unity government paves the way for a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) governing the presence of American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, which Karzai had refused to sign. About 41,000 NATO troops remain in Afghanistan fighting the fierce Taliban insurgency alongside Afghan soldiers and police.
NATO’s combat mission will end in December, with a follow-on force of about 12,000 troops likely to stay into 2015 on training and support duties.
Meanwhile, the United States is preparing to sign a delayed security deal with Afghanistan within days of the inauguration next week of president-elect Ashraf Ghani, a US official revealed Wednesday.
The final results of the contentious elections will also be released by the Afghan elections commission shortly after Monday’s inauguration, which will hopefully “turn the page” on a turbulent few months.
“Everyone considers the BSA closed in terms of the negotiation,” a senior State Department official said, referring to the bilateral security deal governing the presence of US troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014.
“No-one has talked about kind of reopening the issues or anything else within the BSA,” the official said.
“Given that there’s great consistency in terms of their commitment to do it and that it’s been fully negotiated and has closed, we expect that it will be fully signed in a matter of days after the new administration starts.”
After reaching a power-sharing accord for a unity government with his challenger Abdullah Abdullah, Ghani is to be inaugurated Monday as president. Abdullah will serve as chief executive - a new role similar to prime minister.
The State Department official, who asked not to be named, said there were “very good omens for how this will actually work.”
But he conceded the fragile Afghan government faced enormous challenges and Ghani and Abdullah would have to steer their teams towards working together.
“This has been a very adversarial, acrimonious elections process for going on almost a year, with particularly heightened tensions over the course of the last few months,” he told reporters.
“So to pivot fairly immediately from that adversarial relationship to one of collaboration is obviously going to take time.”
Afghan election officials on Sunday named Ghani as the winner, but declined to release the margin of victory or the turnout figure - triggering accusations of lack of transparency.
But the US official said he expected the results to be released by the electoral commission (IEC) once the government is up and running.
“There’s absolutely the intent that these results will be released by the IEC fairly soon. I think once a new government starts and it demonstrates that it can lead and provide the stability that Afghans are seeking, that there will be far more room for this,” the official said.
He denied that it had been a bid to hide the results, after both sides had accused the other of ballot-box stuffing.
“Given the kind of the very sensitive nature of the political environment at this time and the risk of strife... they wanted to ensure that the focus was really on this government of national unity.”