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Afghan rivals to share power
September 21, 2014 -- Updated 1427 GMT (2227 HKT)
Ashraf Ghani gestures as he addresses a press conference in Kabul on July 5, 2014.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: John Kerry praises presidential candidates for putting "the people of Afghanistan first"
- Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani agree to a national unity government
- The agreement provides for the creation of a prime minister-like position under the president
- The deal comes after months of dispute between the two candidates
The lengthy dispute had
put off the selection of a successor to incumbent President Hamid Karzai
and raised fears of increased instability in the fragile, war-torn
country.
But the two rivals
embraced after signing a deal for a national unity government in a
televised ceremony in the capital, Kabul, on Sunday.
Under the agreement, the
winning presidential candidate will create by decree the position of
chief executive officer for the runner-up. The CEO role will have prime
ministerial functions until the constitution can be amended to create a
permanent position of prime minister.
The deal also calls for the two candidates' teams to share senior government positions equally between them.
Final results of the
presidential runoff are expected to be announced later Sunday, but Ghani
was widely reported to have come first.
The political impasse in
Afghanistan this year had come as the Taliban continued to mount deadly
attacks on high-profile targets and fought fiercely for control of
important areas.
As the U.S.-led war
effort against the militants winds down, most NATO troops are due to
withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this year.
'Three months of squabbling'
The presidential
election was held on April 5, and was followed by a runoff vote in June
after the first round proved inconclusive. The election was aimed at
bringing about Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power, but the
accusations of fraud and manipulation put that goal in peril.
In July, Abdullah and
Ghani had come to an agreement, brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry, to accept the result of a nationwide audit and form a unity
government.
But earlier this month, the two candidates showed signs of backing away from the that deal.
Kerry described the
signing of the deal Sunday as "a moment of extraordinary statesmanship,"
saying Ghani and Abdullah had "put the people of Afghanistan first."
The White House and the
U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Jan
Kubis, both expressed support for the new government.
But questions remain about how effective the new arrangement is likely to be.
"It took three months of
squabbling and political infighting to get to this point," Yaroslav
Trofimov, the Afghanistan and Pakistan editor of The Wall Street
Journal, told CNN. "It's anybody guess how well they will manage to
actually govern together, considering all the bad blood."
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul,
and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Christabelle
Fombu and Tom Dunlavey contributed to this report.
copy http://edition.cnn.com/
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