Unity governments can be different things at different times, and we really don't know what's envisioned in this case. What would a government of unity look like? There's no reason to think this audit will be anything other than successful. It's quite another thing for a complete, nationwide audit to be undertaken under the management of the UN and under the protection of heavily armed international troops. It's one thing for a handful of international election monitors to passively observe people going to vote. Additionally, since the audit will take place under the auspices of the UN and ISAF, the Afghan people will likely accept its legitimacy. Yes, because both candidates say they will respect the result after the audit is completed. The immediate focus, and ultimately the most important focus, is to have a full audit so that the next president is seen as a legitimately elected one.Ĭould the audit of all the ballots cast solve the current electoral crisis? This is the only part of the accord that's rather unclear. The deal stipulates that whoever has the most votes after the audit is completed, will be accepted as the next president of Afghanistan.įinally, and most vaguely, that next president will form a government of national unity. The audit will take place over several weeks, and under the auspices of ISAF and the UN. It calls for an audit of every single vote in the run-off, all 8 million of them. ![]() And yet now an agreement has been reached not only to deal with the contested vote, but also with the formation of the next government. In the days leading up to the deal, the two candidates had essentially been talking past each other, with utterly no hopes of an end to the impasse in sight. Kugelman says the deal's immediate focus is to have a full audit so that the next president is seen as a legitimately elected one Image: C. But no one expected him to broker an actual solution to the election crisis. ![]() ![]() Many analysts, including myself, expected Kerry's diplomacy to lower temperatures and reduce tensions in Kabul - in effect, to create an environment more conducive for negotiations. Michael Kugelman: It is an absolute game-changer. Michael Kugelman, Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, says in a DW interview that while the deal offers an unexpected opportunity to end the current political deadlock, other problems may ensue later when forming a unity government and adds that any delay also provides the Taliban with more opportunities to sabotage the electoral process.ĭW: How significant is this agreement brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry? Preliminary results of the second- round vote put Ghani in the lead but Abdullah, who won the first round of the polls, rejected the count and his aides had threatened to set up an alternative administration. The deal, reached after two days of intense negotiations between Kerry and the rival candidates was presented in a joint press conference in Kabul and comes at a crucial time as the US, Afghanistan's biggest foreign donor, prepares to withdraw most of its combat troops by the end of the year. Presidential rivals, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah agreed to an audit of every vote cast in the June 14 runoff election as well as to the formation of a "national government of unity," whoever wins the vote. The deal, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday July 12, offers a possible way out of an electoral standoff which threatened to plunge the South Asian country into a political crisis and ethnic unrest.
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