Blasts have been reported in Kabul as Afghanistan’s two leading presidential candidates held separate swearing-in ceremonies after both claimed to have won last year’s elections.
The incumbent Ashraf Ghani took his oath of office at the country’s presidential palace in Kabul in a ceremony on Monday attended by foreign diplomats including the US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
At about the same time, Ghani’s rival Abdullah Abdullah was holding his own inauguration ceremony despite negotiations late into the night on Sunday in an attempt to find a compromise between the rivals. Television stations in the country broadcast the two ceremonies side by side.
A spokesman for the president’s office said nobody was hurt in the explosions on Monday. It was not immediately clear where they had taken place.
Fears of Taliban attacks, as well as widespread disillusionment contributed to a record-low turnout of Afghans for the elections on 28 September, with Ghani, 70, declared the winner with 50.62% of the vote in February.
But amid a voting process marred by incomplete voter lists, issues with a biometric identification system aimed at curbing fraud and reports of hostile election workers, Abdullah rejected the result and said he would form his own government.
Abdullah, 59, said during his ceremony that if he accepted Ghani’s purported victory it would “be the end of democracy in Afghanistan” and called for renewed talks to break the impasse.
Kai Eide, a former UN special representative in the country, tweeted: “Terribly sad and dangerous. Two parallel ceremonies. This simply cannot continue. Strong unity is required, not destructive rivalries.”
Afghanistan’s election commission in February said it counted 1.82m votes and discarded nearly 1m. There are about 9.6 million registered voters in the country.
The dispute threatens to leave the internationally recognised Afghan government weak and divided after the signing last week of a US agreement with the Taliban that aims to facilitate the withdrawal of most foreign troops from the country.
The Kabul government was shut out of the negotiations by the Taliban, which says it will hold separate talks with its representatives. Analysts said the political dispute is likely to delay the start of the intra-Afghan talks.
Abdullah and Ghani competed against each other in presidential elections in 2014 with similar disputed results. The disagreement led to the creation of a “chief executive” position for Abdullah, an extra-constitutional advisory role aimed at warding off instability.
The Afghan media outlet TOLOnews reported on Monday that Ghani had offered Abdullah 40% of his cabinet and a role overseeing peace negotiations with the Taliban, but that the talks foundered over how much power Abdullah himself would wield.
The second contested result in the presidential polls has added to the frustrations of Afghans, already dealing with a deteriorating security situation, high unemployment and uncertainty over the country’s future.
“It is impossible to have two presidents in one country,” said Ahmad Jawed, 22, who urged the men “to put their personal interests aside and only think of their country instead of fighting for power”.
He told Agence France-Presse that “instead of holding oath-taking ceremonies they should talk to each other to find a solution”.
“They make promises during the campaign but never act on their promises,” said Noman Formuli, Kabul resident.
“They had promised to bring security, they failed. They promised jobs for the country, they failed,” added the 24 year old. “We are tired of seeing them.”
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/09/blasts-afghanistan-presidential-rivals-abdullah-abdullah-ghani-oath-ceremonies
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