Abdullah Abdullah destabilizing democracy?

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Abdullah’s technical team warns to boycott the audit process
By GHANIZADA - Tue Aug 26 2014, 11:57 am
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Afghanistan vote audit resumesThe technical team of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has warned to boycott the vote audit process, claiming that the audit process was not transparent and influenced by politics.
Abdullah’s chief observer, Fazal Ahmad Mawani, announced new conditions and insisted that their demands must be met by tomorrow morning.
Manawi warned that their camp will boycott the audit process if their demands were not met by the election commission.
He criticized the invalidation process of the bogus ballots and said there was not determination to invalidate the fraudulent votes.
He also added that their team’s concerns were shared with the UN mission in Afghanistan, but they have not received any feedback so far.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) officials have not commented regarding the remarks by Dr. Abdullah’s camp so far.

http://www.khaama.com/abdullahs-technical-team-warns-to-boycott-the-audit-process-8503

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Abdullah's Camp Threatens to Halt Political Talks


Tuesday, 26 August 2014 20:21 Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 August 2014 02:52 Written by Saleha Sadat

Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's camp on Tuesday threatened to halt political discussions with their rivals if their recommendations for the vote invalidation process are not taken into consideration. The electoral camp stressed that the invalidation process should be conducted in accordance to the agreements between the candidates.
This is while a member of Abdullah's camp, Fazlurrahman Orya, expressed skepticism over the candidates' meeting with President Karzai, scheduled to take place this evening stressing that the election process should not be politicized.
"The technical process is very important," he said. "I want to announce that if our demands regarding the technical aspects of the process are not listened to, we will refrain from taking part in political negotiations."
Meanwhile, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's camp believes that tonight's meeting will pave the way in resolving the disagreements and finalizing the responsibilities and authorities of the future president and chief executive.
"We strongly believe in the continuation of political negotiations between the candidates," a member of Ghani's camp, Tahir Zuhair said. "Dr. Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will meet with the president tonight (Tuesday evening) to discuss the date of the inauguration ceremony as well as the presence of the Afghan delegation at the NATO summit."
The people of Afghanistan and the international community hope that the two presidential candidates will honor their agreements and commitments in regards to the national unity government as they await the final results of the prolonged election process.

http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/16117-abdullahs-camp-warns-to-halt-political-talks

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Presidential vote audit once again halted

By Ghanizada - Wed Aug 27 2014, 11:40 am

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The audit process of presidential vote was once again halted a day after the electoral camp of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah warned to boycott the process.
The audit has reportedly been halted due to ongoing negotiations between representatives of Dr. Abdullah and Independent Election Commission and UN mission in Afghanistan.
According to reports, the observers of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah are also not seen in the premises of election commission.
In the meantime, an official in Independent Election Commission (IEC) confirmed that the audit process was halted and efforts have been put in place to resume the process.
This comes as Abdullah’s chief observer, Fazal Ahmad Mawani, warned on Tuesday that they boycott the vote audit process, claiming that the audit process was not transparent and influenced by politics.
Manawi told reporters that their camp has set new conditions for the audit and invalidation process, and insisted that their demands must be met by tomorrow morning.

http://www.khaama.com/presidential-vote-audit-once-again-halted-8515

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Abdullah says his team will not accept the election result
By KHAAMA PRESS - Mon Sep 08 2014, 4:45 pm
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Abdullah AbdullahAfghanistan’s controversial presidential election was once again taken towards a deadlock after the Reform and Partnership term led by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah announced their stance regarding the election process.
The announcement by Dr. Abdullah comes as last round of talks between the two candidates over national unity government formation did not yield any result.
Abdullah said the political process has now entered to a deadlock and claimed that his team was the winner and will be the winner of the presidential election, accusing the electoral bodies for being involved in industrial scale fraud.
Abdullah criticized the vote audit and invalidation process and said the process had problems since the beginning and his team’s complaints and concerns were not considered by concerned parties involved in the process.
He claimed that his rival team had the support of government and the electoral bodies during the election and vote audit process.
Abdullah also added that his team was against violence and insisted that his team will pursue their rights in lights of their constitutional rights.

http://www.khaama.com/abdullah-says-his-team-will-not-accept-the-election-result-8613

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Abdullah Declares Victory in Afghanistan’s Presidential Elections
Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah declares victory prematurely, throwing Afghanistan into crisis.

Akhilesh4
By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
September 10, 2014
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Afghanistan has suddenly grown tense as presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah publicly declared himself the winner of June’s disputed run-off presidential elections on Monday. This statement came days before the announcement of audited election results, which are expected to give the election to Abdullah’s rival, Ashraf Ghani. Ghani is a Pashtun whose support is in southern Afghanistan while Abdullah is (half) Tajik, with a power base in northern Afghanistan.

Abdullah’s timing is notable and may be the result of pressure from his supporters to reject the audit results no matter what. It also comes one day before the 13th anniversary of the assassination by Al Qaeda of northern hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought the Pashtun Taliban. Rejecting the results before they are released would be easier than after, since doing so would cast doubt on their legitimacy. Abdullah told his supporters that “we are the winner of the election based on the clean votes of the people. Fraud, fraudulent results and the announcement of the fraudulent results are not acceptable.”

Abdullah’s move comes despite United States Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts. Kerry had previously brokered a deal in which both candidates agreed to accept the outcome of an audit of the elections. However, many northern Afghans, most of whom are Tajiks, feel cheated of the president’s post again; Abdullah conceded the 2009 presidential election to Hamid Karzai. There is a perception that the Pashtun establishment, possibly backed by Karzai, used its influence to bias the present election towards Ghani.

Still, it seems likely that Ghani did actually win the election because of the consolidation of the Pashtun vote around him. In the first round of the Afghan elections, there were several Pashtun candidates in addition to Abdullah, the only Tajik who ran in the election. This would explain how Abdullah won the first round of the elections but not the second one. Additionally, Ghani has some support in the north because his vice presidential candidate, Rashid Dostum, hails from the minority Uzbek community concentrated near the border with Uzbekistan.

In response to Abdullah’s comments, a spokesman for Ghani stated that Ghani was prepared to assume power unilaterally should Abdullah fail to return to the bargaining table. This would be legitimate, according to the spokesman, because Ghani won the election. Although Ghani has been more cooperative than Abdullah during the audit process (probably because he has no reason not to be, since all accounts indicate he won), his camp has also reneged on some issues. Most significantly, he does not seem to be delivering fully on his promise to establish a national unity government. This promise was part of an agreement, brokered by Kerry, that envisioned the losing candidate serving in a newly created chief executive position.

There are fears that the standoff between the two men could lead to violence. According to the Wall Street Journal, “leaders from the Jamiat-e Islami, a political party associated with the Tajik community and Mr. Abdullah, threatened in August to oppose Mr. Ghani with help from allies in the Afghan National Security Forces. Provincial and district governors with close ties to Mr. Abdullah may be arming militias to shore up their power bases in case of a Ghani victory.” While Abdullah urged his followers to seek recourse through non-violent means, many northern militia leaders have said that there will be uprisings if Abdullah is denied victory. There are fears that in such a situation, the Afghan National Security Forces could fracture on ethnic lines. This could lead to violence and possibly civil war, and play into the hands of the Taliban, which no faction in Afghanistan wants to see back in power. It would also jeopardize Afghanistan’s relatively impressive economic and development progress. There are many in Afghanistan who cynically claim that this is all part of Karzai’s plan to extend his term or impose an interim government. This is certainly an outcome that many senior security and political officials in Afghanistan would not be opposed to, an outcome that is arguably better than civil war or Taliban gains.

However, ideally the situation should be diffused by everyone in Afghanistan accepting the results of the audit which points to a Ghani victory. The United States should also support this outcome to de-incentivize Abdullah’s supporters from prolonging the current crisis. Abdullah ought to accept that he lost the election legitimately and both candidates should work towards forming a unity government. If this calls for creating extra-legal provisions, then so be it, as that would be better than civil war. However, in the long run, this is merely a temporary patch.

What Afghanistan needs is a political system that reflects the reality of a multi-ethnic country with many factions. As I pointed out in an earlier article, Afghanistan’s mistake is in attempting to create a strong, centralized state in a country where people feel closest to local and tribal institutions. Afghanistan’s provinces should be given significant autonomy, like Swiss cantons. Furthermore, at the national level, Afghanistan should seriously consider adopting a parliamentary rather than a presidential democracy. A parliamentary system would diffuse power more widely and would allow many different factions to create or shift alliances and share power in many different permutations. The post of the prime minister could be shuffled around between different factions on the basis of compromise instead of one individual winning everything, to the exclusion of his rivals, in a presidential system. This more closely resembles the tribal and ethnic alliance-making patterns of Afghanistan than a centralized presidential system does.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/09/abdullah-declares-victory-in-afghanistans-presidential-elections/