The New York Times says that an agreement has been reached to sign an agreement in the Afghan presidential election. The second round election was conducted 14 weeks ago, in June.
The two candidates for president of Afghanistan have agreed on a power-sharing deal that will give the losing candidate substantial influence in the next government, initialing the American-brokered deal Saturday night and promising to sign it at a formal ceremony on Sunday.
Afghan Presidential Rivals Finally Agree on Power-Sharing Deal, New York Times
The Independent Election Commission previously announced that election results would be announced tomorrow.
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) has said the final results of the country's disputed presidential election will be announced on September 21 following a weeks-long audit for fraudulent votes.
Spokesman Noor Muhammad Noor said on September 20 that the "IEC will officially announce the final result of the presidential election tomorrow."
Afghan Election Results To Be Announced On September 21, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Abdullah campaign had announced that they did not want the results to be announced.
After months of negotiations over the disputed election, the final sticking point is the insistence by Abdullah Abdullah, who is expected to be the loser, that he will agree on the formation of a national unity government only if election authorities do not publicly disclose their now-completed final tally.
Mr. Abdullah contends that the recent audit of the fraud-ridden election could not possibly detect all the fake ballots, so the final result should not be announced despite the legal requirement to do so.
New Wrinkle in Afghan Vote That’s Been Anything but Smooth, New York Times
What the agreement to sign an agreement says about tomorrow's announcing of the results, is not known.
It was not immediately clear whether the two sides reached a compromise on that issue, but the candidates were expected to formally sign the deal at noon on Sunday, at the presidential palace, the American official said.
Afghan Presidential Rivals Finally Agree on Power-Sharing Deal, New York Times
The New York Times says that the agreement contains significant concessions to the Abdullah campaign, about the strength and form of the power sharing arrangement.
Under the deal, the top vote-getter, Ashraf Ghani, would become president but would grant significant powers to the loser, Abdullah Abdullah, making Mr. Abdullah effectively a prime minister, according to a draft of the four-page agreement obtained by The New York Times and authenticated by Western diplomats and campaign officials.
Afghan Presidential Rivals Finally Agree on Power-Sharing Deal, New York Times
This is fairly directly admitted to be a concession to the warlords on the Abdullah side, who have been threatening violence and civil war.
The official said that “the purpose of the call was to drive home to Abdullah’s more militant supporters that the deal in front of them was the best deal they were going to get and that there would be consequences in rejecting it.”
Afghan Presidential Rivals Finally Agree on Power-Sharing Deal, New York Times
The
New York Times gets its information from the Abdullah campaign, western officials, and a draft of the document to be signed. Previous agreements to reach agreements have often fallen apart, and details of what had been agreed to, been disputed.
The Ashraf Ghani campaign has not commented for the New York Times article. But Reuters says the Ghani campaign agrees to the agreement 100%.
Both camps have agreed 100 percent on everything and we’ll sign the deal tomorrow. Everything has been initialed and there is no disagreement on anything,” said Faizullah Zaki, spokesman for front-running candidate and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
Afghan presidential rivals reach unity deal after disputed vote, Reuters
And NPR says that the power sharing aspect of the agreement is not significant, but limited.
The deal would create a national unity government and delegate limited powers to the loser of the election.
Afghan Rivals Prepare To Sign Power-Sharing Agreement, NPR
Voice of America says that the powers are considerable.
Under the power-sharing deal, a newly created office of the chief executive is to be given to the election loser or his nominee, and will have considerable powers in the system of governance.
Afghan Presidential Rivals to Share Power, Voice of America