Hamid Karzai is all packed up and ready to go.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is ready to leave the ARG presidential palace as he has packed up all his personal possessions.
Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, has said that the president has already packed his personal belongings, including his books from shelves in his residence.
“The president has packed up already, days ago,” Karzai`s spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP.
Faizi further added, “A lot of the furniture is staying as it belongs to the palace, but his personal belongings, everything and especially his books, which are very dear to him, are packed.”
President Karzai packs up to leave ARG presidential palace, Khaama
He is leaving his old house, at the Arg, for a new house still inside the walls of the Arg, but next door, and which will be the home of former presidents.
He hopes to leave on September 2, and maybe even will leave then.
"It is impossible to extend the current deadline," Mr. Karzai said on Saturday.
Karzai Sets Inauguration Date for Still Undetermined Successor, Wall Street Journal
The new president of Afghanistan, though, will not be announced until after September 10.
Noting the unprecedented scale of the 100 percent audit, and basing projections on information of the IEC and the UN experts supervising the process, Mr. Kubiš said that a rigorous and credible audit required time, but could be completed around 10 September. Following all necessary steps, as required by law, the inauguration of the new President should then be possible soon after.
UN updates President on progress of election audit, UNAMA
And Afghanistan Analysts Network counts the necessary steps on its fingers, to find that even this date is very ambitious.
To actually meet the 10 September deadline, which the palace is quite likely to insist on, the actual audit probably needs to be finished around 4 September. This so that the final checklists can be entered into the database on 5 September, IEC can announce its last decisions on 6 September, the candidates can register their complaints on 7 September, the IECC can address the complaints on 8 or 9 September and the IEC can then, theoretically, announce the new results on 10 September – provided there are no new crises (which, given the track record of the process, seems highly unlikely).
Elections 2014 (46): Déjà vu – Abdullah pulls out, process continues, Afghanistan Analysts Network
At any rate, the hopes of NATO, to roll out the new president of Afghanistan at a NATO meeting in Wales on September 4, are certainly now dashed.
Foreign Policy shares some of the rumors they are hearing, on what happens next.
The Kabul political class is abuzz with rumors about what can come from Abdullah's withdrawal from Afghanistan's audit of the presidential run-off held in June. The UN is now scrambling to maintain the audit's legitimacy and convince Abdullah's camp to return, continue with the process, and uphold the results. Abdullah backing out of the audit also jeopardizes Secretary of State John Kerry's power-sharing arrangement, and U.S. Ambassador James B. Cunningham is trying to salvage the deal, perhaps to no avail. We are hearing from a number of very reliable and connected Afghan officials -- from Afghan businessmen, to journalists, to sitting Ministers -- that the election crisis is "dangerously deteriorating" from bad to worse.
Afghanistan’s Northern Succession?, Foreign Policy
None of the rumors, in the dangerously deteriorating situation, are very good.
One rumor involves 20 northern provincial governors essentially declaring a northern sucession. Which is pretty close to all the northern provincial governors there could be.
Another rumor has Hamid Karzai asked to stay on, through a Loya Jirga, and with the acceptance of the Abdullah campaign. Afghanistan Analysts Network, though, has a very long list of statements from the Karzai administration that, no matter how many rumors of Hamid Karzai wanting to stay on have been passed around,
the one we are hearing most often from Afghan civil society and political elites
Afghanistan’s Northern Succession?, Foreign Policy
Meanwhile, Karzai has dragged his feet throughout the entire electoral process, apparently hoping that the election would come to be viewed as hopelessly tainted so that he or men loyal to him could step in and establish a “caretaker” government.
A Small Step Forward for Afghanistan, Foreign Policy Association
really, Hamid Karzai is all packed up and ready to go.
In almost every press statement:
It is worth mentioning that 2 August was the scheduled date for the ceremony, but was later postponed by one month on the request of the UN Special Envoy and the two presidential candidates.
Elections 2014 (46): Déjà vu – Abdullah pulls out, process continues, Afghanistan Analysts Network