Country Watch New President Elected for Afghanistan
On September 21, Afghanistan’s electoral com- mission declared Ashraf Ghani the new president of Afghanistan. This announcement which oc- curred after Ghani and his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, reached a power sharing agreement, ended months of political tension. This was the third presidential election in Afghanistan. Presi- dent Hamid Karzai, a two-term elected president, democratically transferred power to his succes- sor for the first time in Afghanistan’s history.
Ghani was sworn in on September 29, 2014 fol- lowing months of tension over alleged electoral fraud and a recount of votes. Afghanistan’s new president has a rich academic and professional background in Afghanistan and abroad. His inter- national career experiences include a position at the World Bank and Special Adviser to Ambassa- dor Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special represen- tative to Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served as the Chief Adviser to his predecessor, Interim President Karzai and as the former finance min- ister of the Afghani Government.
The Elections
The initial election, held in April 2014, resulted in a run-of between Ghani and Abdullah. Totals from the run-off elections held on June 14 showed that Ghani received a majority of the votes. However, accusations of election fraud by Abdullah resulted in lengthy audits and investigations by the United Nations and Afghan election officials.
Tensions remained high after Abdullah failed to concede that Ghani won a free and fair election and threatened to form a parallel government. Finally, the two opponents reached a power-shar- ing agreement in which Abdullah will serve as the chief executive, a role similar to the prime-minis- ter. This agreement reduces the current powers of the President. As a result of the agreement, a government of national unity has been formed.
Moving Forward
On September 30, 2014, immediately following Ghani’s inauguration as president, the new gov- ernment signed security pacts with the United States and NATO to regulate the post-2014 resid- ual international forces in Afghanistan. The agree- ments will allow 9,800 United States troops and 2,000 NATO troops to remain on the ground in Afghanistan. In the light of the peace and secu- rity issues still occurring in Afghanistan, these se- curity agreements seem to be necessary.
President Ghani is also asking the Afghan Taliban leadership to come to the negotiation table and renounce violence. The Taliban have a large pres- ence in numerous rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan.
With a wide range of issues to solve, Ghani and the newly-formed government face important challenges, including living up to the hopes and expectations of their country.
* Submitted by Iuliana-Raluca Luca .
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ILSA Quarterly » volume 23 » issue 2 » December 2014
www.ilf-frankfurt.de 19
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