Shah Faisal >< : KABUL—Afghanistans rival presidential candidates agreed to a full audit of the June 14 runoff election, breaking a political stalemate over the votes outcome after two days of intense diplomacy by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The audit will be carried out in Kabul, and it will begin within 24 hours, Mr. Kerry said Saturday, standing next to the two candidates, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, in the Afghan capital. Mr. Kerry said the audit would cover every single vote that was cast in the election and would take place under international supervision. Ballot boxes, Mr. Kerry added, will be transported to Kabul from the provinces by the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force. The United Nations, Mr. Kerry said, has asked the Afghan government to postpone a planned Aug. 2 inauguration to accommodate the audit, which is expected to take weeks. But rather than paving the way to a political transition, the election led to a crisis. On Monday, the countrys Independent Election Commission released preliminary results tipping Mr. Ghani as the likely winner of the runoff vote, with 56.4% of the ballots cast against Mr. Abdullahs 43.6%. Mr. Abdullah cried foul, saying that industrial-scale ballot stuffing was carried out on his opponents behalf. The former foreign minister declared himself victor and threatened to establish a parallel government. Some of his most prominent supporters described the preliminary vote announcement as a coup and said they would no longer recognize the authority of Mr. Karzai as president. Mr. Kerry acknowledged that allegations of fraud had already battered confidence in the process. Charges of fraud and other irregularities have cast a pall over what should have been a triumphant moment for the Afghan people, he said. Mr. Kerry arrived in Kabul early Friday and launched a marathon series of negotiations, meeting with the rival candidates, Mr. Karzai and many of the countrys main power players. In addition to talks with Messrs. Ghani and Abdullah, Mr. Kerry met with Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, Interior Minister Umar Daudzai and intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil. Discussions on Saturday lasted about 14 hours. Our agreement is simple: we have committed to the thoroughest audit in the history of any election in the developed or developing countries, Mr. Ghani said. 100% of all the ballots will be audited, thereby removing any ambiguity of the process or our accountability to the will of the people. In addition to promising to abide by the results of the election after the audit, the two candidates said they would agree to a government of national unity regardless of who emerges as president. We have a framework of a national-unity government once the votes are cleaned, Mr. Abdullah said. U.S. and international officials, including President Barack Obama, had lobbied Mr. Abdullah to wait for the results of an audit that would separate legitimate from fraudulent ballots. On the eve of Mr. Kerrys arrival, Mr. Karzai endorsed a plan forwarded by the United Nations to conduct a comprehensive audit that would separate fraudulent ballots from valid votes. That U.N. proposal would have involved an audit of 8,050 polling stations, covering around 3.5 million ballots, or 44% of all ballots cast. That partial audit didnt satisfy Mr. Abdullahs camp, however. Before the agreement, an Abdullah campaign insider said the team sought a review of around half of the 22,828 polling stations that were open on June 14. At the center of the controversy are voter turnout numbers and the role of the countrys elections-oversight bodies. Estimates released by the countrys Independent Election Commission put voter turnout at an unexpectedly high 8.1 million. Mr. Abdullahs camp claims that as many as 2 million of those votes are fraudulent, pointing to high turnout in the violence-prone regions of eastern Afghanistan. Mr. Abdullah also accused Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, the countrys chief electoral officer, of conspiring to stuff ballots, and released audio recordings that purportedly substantiated those claims. Mr. Amarkhil denied any interference in the election, but resigned following the release of the recordings, dealing another blow to the legitimacy of the process. In addition to the removal of Mr. Amarkhil, Mr. Abdullah issued other demands, including an audit supervised by the international community and a recount of provincial ballots in Kabul. Mr. Ghani disavows fraud and has said he is willing to accept intense scrutiny of the results.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:02:08 +0000
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