Afghanistan: No Winner Yet, but Afghan Presidential Candidate Still Outlines New Government

By ROD NORDLAND

The Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, sounding secure in the prospect of victory, began outlining his plans for a new government Wednesday in a speech to supporters.

At the same time, Mr. Ghani insisted that he was ready to continue negotiations aimed at forming a national unity government with his presidential rival, Abdullah Abdullah, even though Mr. Abdullah declared on Monday that talks were deadlocked and that he would never accept a Ghani presidency because of widespread electoral fraud.

But Mr. Ghani was adamant that he was unwilling to compromise on what he said were constitutional issues in the talks over forming a government.

“We will not compromise on the constitutional issue, but we will still continue the discussions, today, tomorrow, and we remain optimistic,” Mr. Ghani said. “Inshallah, we will have a new government in a week,” he said, using an Arabic expression that means “God willing.”

However, there were no face-to-face talks between the two candidates on Tuesday or Wednesday, Mr. Ghani said. Mr. Abdullah left town Tuesday for celebrations in his home area of the Panjshir Valley commemorating the 13th anniversary of the assassination of the famed resistance fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud.

The constitutional issue Mr. Ghani referred to is a serious sticking point between the two candidates. Both have committed to forming a unity government and accepting the results of an audit of their June runoff election.

That government would include a newly created post of chief executive, with the losing candidate nominating the person to fill that role.

Mr. Abdullah’s side wanted the chief executive to have executive powers over members of the cabinet, giving it real authority, while Mr. Ghani’s side has objected, saying that would be an unconstitutional abridgment of the president’s powers.

Although the audit was declared complete several days ago, the Independent Election Commission, which conducted it under the supervision of the United Nations, has not declared a winner and instead has been dribbling out adjudications — tabulations of polling places where votes are considered valid or not based on the audit — in a process that now appears will take at least another week until a winner can be formally named.

Such an announcement had been expected by Tuesday, Western diplomats said last week. Nearly all observers expect Mr. Ghani to be declared the winner, but the Abdullah campaign insists that the election was not only flawed, but that the audit was unfair and failed to detect what Mr. Abdullah has called “industrial-scale fraud.”

Constitutionally, there is nothing to stop Mr. Ghani from taking office as president once the results of the election are certified, even if a national unity government has not been agreed on by then.

But there are widespread fears of unrest among Mr. Abdullah’s supporters, some of whom have staged rowdy protests in Kabul or have called on him to declare a breakaway government.

“Accepting the announcement of the final results is the only way to break this political deadlock,” Mr. Ghani said. “I will stick to the national unity government, but there won’t be any compromise. It will be on a constitutional basis. We will not go past the Constitution to make a deal.”

Mr. Ghani also told the crowd of top supporters and campaign workers some of the plans he has for a new government, including setting up a system where local officials have to compete on a merit basis for their positions, and increasing popular participation in the choice of presidential appointees.

At one point, Mr. Ghani proudly related how a pregnant woman in northern Baghlan Province had managed to get to the polls in the runoff election just in time to vote for him, then delivered a son.

“In my honor she named her baby Ashraf, and I am proud of that,” he said.