Ayaz Gul
VOA News
March 9, 2020

Afghanistan’s president-elect Ashraf Ghani and his election rival, runner-up Abdullah Abdullah, took part in parallel swearing-in ceremonies Monday, fueling political tensions and posing a fresh challenge to U.S.-led peace efforts.

Both ceremonies were initially delayed, apparently to allow for hectic U.S. diplomacy to resolve the crisis.  However, after several hours the inaugurations began.

Ghani was the first to take the oath, in a ceremony shown live, where among other foreign guests were U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and U.S. commander of international forces Scott Miller.

Abdullah also was sworn in in a ceremony in his office, with both ceremonies broadcast live by all afghan television stations, some showing the two on split screens.

The Afghan election commission late last month declared incumbent Ghani the winner of the bitterly contested September 28 presidential election.

But Abdullah, the incumbent chief executive, rejected the outcome as fraudulent, claiming that he and his team had won the vote and threatened to form his own government.

Monday Abdullah tweeted his determination to move forward:  “No one should have underestimated our commitment to genuine democracy & our resolve to uphold rule of law. Our track record of self-denial & compromise should not have given cause to anyone to take us for granted. Invalidation of all fraudulent votes is the way out!”

Ghani and Abdullah both have come under sharp criticism from Afghan politicians and public who have taken to social media to express their outrage. “

This mockery of a dignified and brutalized nation by a handful is weakening Afghanistan,” tweeted Hekmat Khalil Karzai, former Afghan deputy foreign minister.“

Their actions are an insult to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation. Afghanistan needs to be shielded from those responsible for this tragic comedy,” lamented Karzai, currently chairman of the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies (CAPS) in Kabul.

The political turmoil poses a serious challenge to a landmark deal the United States signed with the Taliban insurgency a week ago to help bring stability to Afghanistan.

The agreement signed February 29 in Qatar requires the Taliban to open negotiations with an inclusive Afghan delegation of political forces and civil society, and negotiate a permanent cease-fire.

The intra-Afghan talks are to begin Tuesday, but the inauguration crisis, analysts say, is likely to hamper efforts aimed at forming a united Afghan delegation to engage in talks with the Taliban.

Both Ghani and his traditional rival Abdullah also had claimed victories in the 2014 fraud-marred presidential election, leading to months of political chaos in the country.

Washington’s intervention at the time had settled the dispute under a deal that allowed Ghani to become the president and Abdullah to head a newly formed office of the chief executive of the outgoing so-called national unity government of Afghanistan that was plagued by deep political rivalries and controversies throughout its tenure.

Videos

• Abdullah Abdullah’s Full Speech at Swearing-In Ceremony
• Ashraf Ghani’s swearing-in ceremony and full speech
  • Ghani’s speech was disrupted by the sound of explosions

Related

• Invalidation of all fraudulent votes is the way out: Abdullah
• Taliban say parallel presidential ceremonies threatens progress on peace talks

Abdullah (left) and Ghani (right)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
March 9, 2020

Confusion reigned early on March 9 over the parallel inaugurations planned by Afghanistan’s rival claimants to the presidency after challenger Abdullah Abdullah’s spokesman said he was postponing his ceremony.

However, spokesman Omid Maisam said Abdullah’s decision was contingent upon incumbent President Ashraf Ghani also delaying his inauguration — a demand Ghani’s team immediately rejected.

Shah Hussain Murtazavi, a member of Ghani’s team, told Reuters following the Abdullah statement that nothing had changed and that Ghani’s inauguration was going ahead as scheduled.

“The arrival of guests has just started and we will have our ceremony in a few hours,” Murtazavi said.

Maisam said Abudullah’s decision was made following the intervention of Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear what Abdullah would do if Ghani did not postpone his inauguration.

The dispute over the presidency has left Kabul’s allies and ordinary Afghan deeply worried about the future of the country as it tries to strike a peace deal with Taliban militants. Washington previously asked both sides to delay the ceremonies.

In February, after months of delay, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission announced that Ghani had been reelected with just over 50 percent of the first-round vote.

Afghan election officials said Abdullah finished in second place with just over 39 percent of the vote.

But Abdullah, alleging widespread fraud during the vote count, insists that he won the election and has vowed to form his own government.

Political analyst Atta Noori told AFP that the dispute would “gravely affect the government’s position in the upcoming intra-Afghan talks.”

“Unity is the only way [forward] if they want to win on the negotiating table,” he said.

Before the last-minute statements, talks reportedly were under way to reach a deal to avoid a damaging political standoff, but Ghani and Abdullah have until now shown no willingness to compromise.

The Taliban, meanwhile, had earlier said talks scheduled this week with Afghanistan’s government are unlikely to take place on time because of the two rivals’ plans to conduct the parallel ceremonies.

Widespread allegations of fraud in Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential election led to a political crisis between the top candidates, also Ghani and Abdullah.

That crisis was resolved by a U.S.-brokered power-sharing agreement that created a fragile national unity government.

Under that deal, Ghani became president while a new office of chief executive officer was created for Abdullah.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan, Radio Mashaal, AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpa

Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.