There’s hope for Afghanistan with new power-sharing plan

Three months after the highly controversial run-off presidential election that threatened to return Afghanistan to the Dark Ages of the Taliban, there’s now a president-elect waiting to be sworn in Monday— and a power-sharing partner who will name a chief executive to lead some of the key institutions.

This isn’t exactly the democracy the United States and its allies had in mind when their military forces invaded Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 and ousted the ruling Taliban Islamic extremists. The invasion occurred shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America’s homeland by members of al-Qaida, who were trained in the mountains of Afghanistan and were provided a safe haven by the Taliban.

The new government in Kabul will replace the one that has been led since 2004 by Hamid Karzai, who came to power promising a new beginning. Unfortunately, he is now presiding over a country steeped in corruption, held hostage by ethnic rivalries and threatened by the Taliban.

Neighboring Pakistan has largely turned a blind eye to the Islamic extremists who have set up camp in the remote provinces near the border from which the attacks on Afghanistan are launched.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that the presidential election called to choose a successor to Karzai was controversial from the outset. There were bloody clashes involving supporters of the various candidates, allegations of vote rigging and the disappearance of ballots, and international criticism of the way the election was conducted.

When the votes were finally counted, two candidates emerged as the top finishers, but neither could claim outright victory.

Thus, Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister, and Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, faced off in June in an election that was meant to ensure a smooth transition of power. However, Abdullah charged widespread election fraud, while Ghani declared victory. A major political crisis loomed, prompting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to intervene. Kerry persuaded the two presidential candidates to agree to an audit under national and international supervision of every one of the 8 million ballots, and to embrace the concept of a unity government. Kerry envisioned participation from both presidential camps and all communities in Afghanistan.

But the audit turned up major problems in the run-off election vote and once again the threat of a national political implosion loomed large.

Fortunately, Ghani and Abdullah reached agreement on a power-sharing plan that involves executive decision-making and also control of the Afghanistan security forces.

Unfortunately, one of the main building blocks of democratic government — transparency — was left out of the design of the new political structure at Abdullah’s insistence. The former foreign minister demanded secrecy with regard to the final vote tally from the run-off election. He undoubtedly believed he was so far behind in the count that making the results public would have rendered him a political has-been.

Levers of power

Now, however, Abdullah has his hand on the levers of power in war-wary Afghanistan — as does Ghani.

The U.S. and its allies must take comfort in the fact that this arrangement not only means the various factions now have an interest in ensuring that stability becomes the rule rather than the exception, but also share a common enemy: the Taliban.

The Islamists who ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist and adherence to Shariah law were overthrown in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Since then, thousands of American soldiers have died, and billions of dollars have been spent to guide the nation out of the Dark Ages.

Both Ghani and Abdullah know well what a return of the Taliban would mean. During their reign of terror, the Islamic extremists took away individual freedoms, relegated women to second-class citizenry, deprived girls of attending school and generally caused the country to collapse economically and socially.