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Afghanistan in July 2014

Pays
Afghanistan
+ 1
Sources
BAAG
Date de publication
Origine
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Elections

On the 7th, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced the preliminary results of the runoff. It showed that 8.1 million ballots were cast, 56% of which had gone to Ashraf Ghani. This was a pleasant reversal of fortunes for him as he only got 32% of votes in the first round. Abdullah cried foul and alleged that the one million additional voters were the result of industrial-level fraud orchestrated by the IEC.

This resulted in a perilous political impasse. UNAMA’s suggestions to audit part of the votes were refused by Abdullah whose supporters demanded a response to the IEC’s ‘coup’ by forming an Abdullah-led government arbitrarily. The US was quick to warn that this would result in the discontinuation of military and civilian aid. A breakthrough was achieved by the US Secretary of State John Kerry, who landed in Kabul on the 11th for an intensive two day visit. After tense negotiations, the candidates agreed to an international audit of all votes and to form a ‘national unity’ government whatever the results may be. The latter meant the winner will become the President and the other will be the head of a newly created Executive Council.

Since then the IEC, volunteers from both camps, media, civil society, UN staff and international observers have been auditing the votes. International military forces have been supporting the Afghan security personnel in transporting the votes to Kabul. The disagreements over the criteria of ‘clean’ votes coupled with Ramadan fasting disrupted the process and only some 2,000 out 23,000 ballot boxes have been audited. Meanwhile, there have been few talks between the two candidates over the details of the ‘power-sharing’, raising concerns that the inauguration of the next President may be delayed. This puts more strain on security resources, halts public policy decisions and most importantly delays the signing of security pacts between Afghanistan, the US and NATO.