Viewpoint

The Afghan Imbroglio

Date: 19 February 2020 - 22:11

News ID: ۷۶۳۵۷

By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

US-occupied Afghanistan has again entered an uncertain and embarrassing phase with the two leading presidential candidates declaring themselves winners.
According to the long delayed results of the disputed elections held last September, the incumbent Ashraf Ghani is said to be the winner by the narrowest margin, securing less than 2.5 percent of the nation’s votes, since only 1,823,948 people turned out at the ballot boxes, accounting for a mere 5% of Afghanistan’s estimated population of 40 million.
Election commission officials after announcing that Ghani had received 50.64% of the votes cast, while Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah had secured 39.53%, tried to flee the country but were reportedly barred from leaving on the orders of the latter who accused them of fraud, saying he was the actual winner.
Ghani, who holds US citizenship, along with his Lebanese Christian wife and a son and daughter living in the United States, was immediately congratulated by the American ambassador to Kabul, Molly Phee, who blatantly meddled in Afghan internal affairs by endorsing the results of the disputed elections, saying "more than 50 percent of the vote precludes any potential runoffs.”
Soon, however, Dr. Abdullah appeared in a televised address surrounded by his own supporters, saying: "I ask those who believe in democracy, in a healthy future for this country, and in the citizens’ rights to stand up to fraud, to not accept this fraudulent result.”
He added that over a hundred thousand votes cast for his chief rival were bogus, and said: "We are the winners based on clean votes, and we declare our victory. We will form the inclusive government.”
It means, Abdullah who was also robbed of victory in the 2014 elections by his present rival, whom the American occupiers gifted the presidency and then created for the former the prime-minister-like post of Chief Executive, which he still holds, seems to be determined this time to seriously stake his claim of being the winner by forming a rival cabinet made up of the various ethnic, political, and religious groups of Afghanistan.
This would be a serious challenge to not only Ghani but the entire country reeling under US occupation, wracked by the Taliban insurgency, plagued by the poppy cultivators, and terrorized by the American supported Daesh takfiris.
Meanwhile, the Taliban which is engaged in some sort of so-called peace talks with the US, strongly reacted to the re-election of Ashraf Ghani as the President of Afghanistan, calling the election process as "fake and unlawful”.
Its statement said: "Holding elections and announcing oneself a president under occupation shall never remedy the problems of our Muslim Afghan nation just as it has failed to do so over the past nineteen years.”
It is obvious that a divided dispensation with various power centres in Kabul would not only jeopardize any efforts for a political settlement, but would make the life of the people miserable.
With its legitimacy under question, the Ashraf Ghani government will fail to administer the country, resulting in chaos and more opportunities for the US occupiers to fish in troubled waters.
Afghanistan which has not seen any peace since the communist coup that killed President Daud Khan in April 1978 and was occupied by the Soviet Union in December 1979, recently on February 15 marked the 31st anniversary of the withdrawal of the Red Army by the courageous decision of Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Americans who are in occupation of Afghanistan since October 2001 are a bunch of cowardly killers, while their president Donald Trump is a dastardly terrorist, who lacks the guts to emulate Gorbachev and withdraw his forces.
This means, unless the various Afghan factions end their dispute and join each other for the common national cause by overcoming their trivial differences, neither they will be able to kick out the American occupiers nor restore peace and stability to their country.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran as a friendly and fraternal neighbour, sharing religion, history, culture, and language, and hosting millions of Afghans as refugees for the past four decades, is ready to help Afghanistan find solution to its problems and end the American occupation.