Afghan presidential rivals seal power-sharing deal

Financial Times ^ | September 21, 2014 8:56 am | May Jeong

[GonzoII]

Afghanistan’s two presidential candidates Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah have finally agreed a power-sharing deal, drawing a line under a contested election that has dragged out for almost six months.

The agreement, which bestows substantial power on the losing candidate, was finalised on Saturday and made public in a ceremony on Sunday.

Parties met late into the night over the past few days to seal the deal before Sunday, when an announcement of the final result of the UN-run election audit is expected.

Negotiations, begun in July and finalised earlier this week, were drawn out because Mr Abdullah, the losing candidate according to preliminary results, had opposed the announcement of the results – and it remains unclear whether the electoral commission will go ahead with an official announcement of results.

After the first round of voting, Mr Abdullah had boycotted the election, its audit, and the release of final results, claiming the entire process was marred by fraud.

Under the power-sharing deal, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the winner of the election will be president while the loser will take on the newly created position of prime minister, to be known as the chief executive officer.

Mr Ghani is expected to be declared the winner while Mr Abdullah – or someone he nominates – would become prime minister. The agreement confers powers to the prime minister, who will head the “council of ministers”, while the president remains head of his cabinet.

[GonzoII]

"The security pact that would allow for foreign troops to remain in the country beyond this year remains to be signed, and will be among the first things that the president-elect Ghani will need to tend to once he comes into power."

They better remain.

[PGalt]

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

[GonzoII]

No problem.

[Ann Archy]

Maybe John Kerry finally got something one.

[ImNotLying]

I didn’t read in the article where part of the deal is that we have to give them $457 BILLION. As soon as they get their billions they will tell John Kerry to kiss their ass.

[Dr. Ursus]

The Bank of Qatar gets two new accounts!