Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Agreement between the Presidential Candidates

After much drama and controversies, at last both the presidential candidates, Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah signed a deal on Sunday September 21, regarding the formation of national unity government. As per the agreement, Dr. Ashraf Ghani will take over as president and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah will be given the Chief Executive position. This position has been specially created to end the political impasse. The signing of the agreement was hailed by the people of Afghanistan and the international community as it helped solve the uncertainty and controversy dominating Afghanistan’s political environment.

Following the agreement between the candidates, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Sunday announced the final result of the disputed presidential election. At a brief news conference in Kabul, IEC Chairman Ahmad Yousaf Nuristani declared former finance minister Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the winner. The announcement ends weeks of uncertainty about the future administration. Surprisingly, Nuristani gave no vote figures, saying the results had been shared with the presidential hopefuls, who signed the agreement on power-sharing earlier in the day at the Presidential Palace.

When the second and final recounting of votes had been finished, the insistence of both the candidates for their own benefits was not understandable because their heedless and irresponsible acts were inflicting such harms on the country that it would take many decades before these losses could be recovered and country would return to a state of normalcy. If the candidates were not going to accept the results of recounting and the whole process was going to end without any clear conclusion, it was a meaningless act to start it right in the beginning. If both the candidates were going to settle down their differences with negotiations and with the scale of ‘give and take’, it was meaningless to initiate such a lengthy process of recounting for which the nation kept waiting for many months and in the end, they got nothing in fact.

It was needed that the Independent Election Commission should have announced the results and government should have asked both the candidates to accept the result and in the light of this result, the leading candidate should have been invited to form a government while the losing candidate should have accepted its defeat considering the vast objectives of the country but unfortunately, this constitutional path was not followed and both the candidates were busy in making efforts to get more and more share in power.

According to experts, the first and foremost danger faced by Afghanistan is of militancy. Militants have gained a lot from the ongoing political uncertainty and the situation has added a lot in their confidence and with every passing day, they are becoming bolder and more confident. Every summer, their activities and attacks increased but this year, they carried out organized attacks and captured many small towns and villages in a number of provinces of the country. At present, they have got a strong hold in Kunduz, Helmand, Herat, and large number of provinces bordering with Pakistan. According to local people, government forces are limited only to the major cities while Taliban are in control of the small towns and villages.

The situation has worsened due to the fact that foreign troops are leaving the country by the end of this year and they have greatly decreased their military operations against the militants but according to the claims of Ministry of Defense, our forces are capable enough to protect the country from all the external and internal threats. In these fights, our forces also sacrificed a lot and according to some sources, the political uncertainty has badly affected their morale in the battle field. According to the military experts, it would take many months and casualties of large number before our forces come to take back these places and clean every corner of the country from the militants. It is a natural fact that increased militancy has also badly affected the economic conditions of the residents of the area. In all these places, economic activities have almost ceased, giving birth to sharp rise in unemployment and crime rates.

In the same way, the economy has witnessed the worst decline in all these years of democracy. Unemployment has sky-rocketed, leaving a lot of room for increase in the crime rate. The confidence of local and foreign investors on the economy and general condition of country has badly been affected and it would take many years before they feel confident enough to bring in their money into the country.

It is now hoped that the agreement between both the candidates and announcement of the result would help diminish the uncertainty and ambiguities regarding political future and would welcome the new government to take responsibilities to face the gigantic challenges ahead.