Ghani, Abdullah agreement beginning of an arduous process

WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): The agreement on auditing of ballot between the two presidential candidates, Asharf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah, as meditated by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, is just the beginning of another process that will be very arduous in its own right and is not an end, a senior US official warned Monday.

“Everyone recognizes that this is not the end of the road. It’s just the beginning of another process that will be very arduous in its own right. And so there are many, many things that will be problematic in both of these tracks,” a senior administration official said and indicated that they are expecting a long drawn out process in the coming weeks.

Noting that there will be any number of technical issues that come up during the counting and auditing of ballots, the official said that this is a very nascent democracy without the really mature institutions to deal with a close election. 

“We always hope in elections that they’re not this razor close because problems like this evolve.  When it’s a democracy like this, it’s even harder. So absolutely there will be a very bumpy ride on the technical side,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Such an agreement was reached between the two rival presidential candidates following hours of talks by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry. The White House described the Kerry-mediated Ghani-Abdullah agreement as significant.

Both the candidates did it out of a heartfelt passion and commitment to the future of Afghanistan and making sure all that collectively they have worked for over the last 13 years in terms of international community and US commitment of lives and very, very significant resources, but what Afghans have really fought for over the last 13 years was not lost during this transition period, which would obviously be quite historic in terms of transition from one democratically elected government to the next, the official said.

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