Rival Afghan presidential candidates agree to resolve dispute

Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani signed a deal promising to cooperate on forming a national unity government. It puts in writing a verbal deal US Secretary of State John Kerry brokered last month. 

|
Rahmat Gul/AP
Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani (l.) speaks as candidate Abdullah Abdullah listens during a joint press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014. The two rival presidential candidates signed a deal promising to cooperate on forming a national unity government.

Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates have signed a deal to cooperate on the formation of a government of national unity, both candidates told a news conference following meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday.

A joint declaration that both of the candidates signed, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, did not provide details on the government's framework, except to say that both sides would form commissions to work on its structure.

The power sharing deal, agreed verbally during Mr. Kerry's last visit to Afghanistan a month ago, was intended to pull the country back from war along ethnic lines after both candidates claimed victory in an election marred by widespread fraud.

"One of these men is going to be president but both are going to be critical to the future of Afghanistan no matter what," Kerry told reporters in Kabul.

The two candidates, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah stood by Kerry as he spoke.

The joint-declaration stated the candidates would agree to a timeline for the electoral process and inauguration date for the next president by the end of August. Afghanistan's Western backers hope an audit of votes will produce a legitimate president before a NATO summit in early September.

The United Nations is supervising a full recount of all eight million votes cast in a June run-off vote, as agreed during Kerry's last visit to Afghanistan a month ago.

"This audit is not about winning and losing, it is about achieving a credible result that people of Afghanistan deserve," Kerry added.

The election was to mark Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power before most foreign troops pull out at the end of 2014.

(Additional reporting by Krista Mahr; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Robert Birsel)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Rival Afghan presidential candidates agree to resolve dispute
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0808/Rival-Afghan-presidential-candidates-agree-to-resolve-dispute
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe