Photo by Vivian McPherson’23
BY ADITI PARASHAR ’22
After a five-month election dispute, Afghanistan’s election commission declared incumbent Ashraf Ghani the winner of the 2019 presidential elections on Feb. 18. Ghani won with 50.64 percent of the popular vote. Ghani’s main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, claimed that the results were unlawful. Abdullah declared himself the winner and announced that he plans to form his own parallel government.
The election results came in the midst of a tense political environment in Afghanistan, with the United States working on a peace deal with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar to allow for the withdrawal of troops stationed in Afghanistan. AP News reported that the peace deal could potentially lead to the end of the U.S. war in the region.
The tensions in Afghanistan caused by these election results make it unclear exactly who will be representing Kabul in the intra-Afghan negotiations. A statement made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also did not specify if Ghani or Abdullah would be representing Kabu.
The 2019 elections were held on Sept. 28. According to The New York Times, officials alleged charges of election rigging and technical problems.
Due to this, the election commission tried to move forward in November with a recount of the ballot, which Abdullah’s supporters stopped by rallying against what they considered fake ballots and a pre-decided result. In December 2019, Abdullah allowed for a recount in the areas in which his supporters had initially halted the process, according to the Associated Press.
The rivalry between Ghani and Abdullah has been fierce since the 2014 Afghanistan presidential election, when Ghani won the election by a small margin. At the time, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry mediated a deal, which led to a power sharing deal, with Ghani as president and Abdullah as the government’s chief executive.
Al Jazeera reported that Abdullah believed the results to be a “coup against democracy and a betrayal of the will of the people.” The Taliban also claimed Ghani’s win was illegitimate and continued to call the Afghan government a “puppet” of the U.S.
“After the end of the invasion the Muslim people of Afghanistan will decide about their internal issues and will adopt their political faith,” the Taliban’s statement said.
“Already you have so many dissenting voices and then the legitimacy of the government is questioned along with all the doubt that surrounds the process,” Abhilash Medhi, a professor of history at Mount Holyoke, said. “I’m not sure how that can be a springboard from which to conduct any fruitful discussion with the Taliban.”
The U.S. is currently in the process of negotiating a deal with the Taliban, which could be finalized by the end of February, contingent on an initial seven-day reduction in violence for all forces. The temporary peace hold may be followed by negotiations with Afghan leaders.