A two-track approach is needed to solve the current election dispute in Afghanistan, says Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat. Lingering questions regarding the election's legitimacy will only lead to more problems down the road. Follow him on Twitter: @OmSamad
What is very important to Afghans, after all these years, is to make sure the democratic system functions properly. Any attempt by any side, whether domestic or foreign, to derail this democratic development that Afghans have paid dearly for is going to backfire. It is going to jeopardise the country.
I don’t think that any one side is planning to do so. But it is very obvious now, to the international community as well, that we need to sort out the mess that was created by the election process. Unless this mess is taken care of and cleansed to a point where all can agree on its credibility, we will experience political challenges down the road.
There are solutions. One has to seek a solution first of all by agreeing to get rid of any type of massive fraud and cleaning up the system before we engage in any type of meaningful political trust-building.
In my opinion, we need to have a two-track approach.
On one hand it has to be technical. We need to very quickly bring into the picture a very competent, professional and reliable group of election experts from within and outside Afghanistan to work with the United Nations to oversee what the Afghan election commission has either made a mistake with or is working on right now. This means voter count, eligibility, vote distribution and adjudication. There’s a lot of work that needs to go into cleansing the system and making it credible from a technical point of view.
While this is going on, I think the door for dialogue between the two camps should be open. If at any moment they want to sit down and exchange views on how to shape the future governance structure of Afghanistan, they should be able to do so.
If it requires some international mediation, they will have to agree and ask for it. If it doesn’t, they can do it as Afghans.
These are the two tracks that I see helping us reach some kind of desirable outcome.
If at any point there is a need for the leader of a certain country to step in and help resolve the crisis or maybe mediate, then the Afghans would have to ask for that. I think that would be welcomed. We see now secretary of state John Kerry using his vast experience with Afghanistan, as well as his personal acquaintance with all of the players, to at least listen and offer advice. I think that has been welcomed by all sides in Afghanistan.
It’s a critical and pivotal moment for Afghanistan. All Afghans recognise that. No Afghan in their right mind would want to jeopardise the gains of the last 13 years or want to endanger stability and democratic development in the country. I believe that there is a way out of this dilemma. I think that all players will do whatever possible.
What we need to do, however, is make sure that our belief in democratic values and our belief in better governance and popular participation is real and genuine, not just a slogan. That means that we need to adhere to the rules that govern democratic systems. And one of the basic rules is that a citizen’s vote, whether it is a man or woman, has to be respected, it has to be counted.
And this is what I think people like [presidential candidate Abdullah] Abdullah are trying to convey. They have enough evidence to make these allegations of fraud during the second round of voting on June 14. And they want to be sure make sure that the situation is resolved and not questioned by anyone in the country.
My personal belief is that people deciding their future leadership is a very cherished value. We cannot undermine it and we cannot manipulate it.
At the end of the day that is what Afghan people are asking for, regardless of who is going to win or lose the election.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
