AI
Sunday, July 13, 2014 11:55:18 PM
Kerry-brokered Afghan election deal: 'A game-changer'
After weeks of bitter dispute over fraud claims, Afghanistan's presidential hopefuls have agreed to audit every vote cast in the election, a move that could end the political deadlock, analyst Michael Kugelman tells DW.
13.07.2014
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. 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, 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.
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.
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.
DW: How significant is this agreement brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry?
Michael Kugelman: It is an absolute game-changer. 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. But no one expected him to broker an actual solution to the election crisis.
[...]
http://www.dw.de/kerry-brokered-afghan-election-deal-a-game-changer/a-17782145
After weeks of bitter dispute over fraud claims, Afghanistan's presidential hopefuls have agreed to audit every vote cast in the election, a move that could end the political deadlock, analyst Michael Kugelman tells DW.
13.07.2014
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. 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, 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.
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.
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.
DW: How significant is this agreement brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry?
Michael Kugelman: It is an absolute game-changer. 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. But no one expected him to broker an actual solution to the election crisis.
[...]
http://www.dw.de/kerry-brokered-afghan-election-deal-a-game-changer/a-17782145
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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