[The peace talks entered their ninth round Friday in Qatar, and both sides said they hope to work out the final issues soon. Under a current draft agreement, 5,000 U.S. troops would leave in coming months and an additional 9,000 by next year. In return, the Taliban would cut ties with al-Qaeda. Still unclear is whether the insurgents would agree to a permanent cease-fire and to talks with Kabul officials.]
By
Pamela Constable
 |
|
Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani inspects an honor guard during Independence Day
celebrations
in Kabul on Aug. 19. (Afghan Presidential Palace photo/via AP)
|
KABUL
— As 10 months of
U.S.-Taliban peace talks enter their final stage, President Ashraf Ghani is
doubling down on his determination to hold presidential elections five weeks
from now, as scheduled, while his aides are hurriedly prepping negotiators to
meet with Taliban leaders even sooner if a deal is reached with U.S. officials.
Ghani, who is seeking a second five-year
term, has rejected concerns raised by a variety of critics, who say that peace
is a higher priority than elections and that politics cannot be allowed to
interfere in the country’s first real chance to end an 18-year war that has
cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The peace talks entered their ninth round
Friday in Qatar, and both sides said they hope to work out the final issues
soon. Under a current draft agreement, 5,000 U.S. troops would leave in coming
months and an additional 9,000 by next year. In return, the Taliban would cut
ties with al-Qaeda. Still unclear is whether the insurgents would agree to a
permanent cease-fire and to talks with Kabul officials.
In an interview this week on ToloNews TV,
Ghani said he would not accept a delay in the Sept. 28 polls even if the
insurgents were to announce a cease-fire. The Taliban, he said, is “a part of
this country, but they are not the determinant of the fate of this country.” He
said his job as president is “to save the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan . . .
to save the system at any cost.”
The president’s comments came as national
election officials announced that at least 2,000 of about 7,400 polling
stations will not open on election day because they cannot be protected. The
Taliban has threatened to attack election sites across the country, and most shuttered
polls will be in insurgent-plagued provinces. The Taliban controls nearly half
of the nation’s 400 districts.
Various Afghan commentators have accused
Ghani, 70, of putting his political ambitions ahead of the public’s
overwhelming desire for peace. Some say he wants to dominate the intra-Afghan
peace talks because he has been sidelined from the U.S.-Taliban talks at the
insistence of the insurgents. The Afghan-to-Afghan talks will frame a future
power-sharing arrangement.
“The president who represents his nation
needs to be flexible and listen to their demands . . .
not to act as dictators do,” the editors of the daily Afghanistan Times
newspaper wrote Saturday. “What is most important for people is a lasting
peace,” they wrote. “We can hold elections later,” when stability returns and
more voters can turn out to choose their next leader.
Aides to Ghani said he believes the
government must enter Taliban talks with a strong mandate, which only elections
can provide. Ghani’s term ended in May but was extended by the Supreme Court.
They also said he is determined to protect the democratic rights and
institutions built since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001. The insurgents
want to create an Islamist emirate.
“For a lot of us, what’s at stake is the
survival of the Republic,” said Nader Nadery, a senior aide to the president.
“An election and peace talks don’t necessarily contradict each other.”
With most candidates running on a peace
platform, even an election with low turnout is “better than an extended term
with no mandate,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of saying ‘Let’s postpone
the elections to get more credibility.’ ”
Nadery said the government has been working
quickly to prepare for talks with the Taliban, which could come within weeks if
a deal is struck with the United States. A small group of delegates is being
trained in the art of negotiation, and an array of political leaders have been
named to a consultative council. Forums for national and international input
are being arranged.
Still, many Afghans fear a hasty U.S.
withdrawal will leave their leaders with little ammunition to pressure the
insurgents. On Saturday, a Taliban spokesman tweeted a video showing the chief
Taliban negotiator telling a gathering that U.S. forces are “on the run” and
will leave very soon. “Americans are facing defeat,” he said. “Afghanistan will
be free again.”
Ghani is facing 16 contenders, led by his
government’s former chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, and a former
intelligence chief, Rahmatullah Nabil. His strongest rival, former national
security adviser Hanif Atmar, has quit the race. Few others have held campaign
events or put up street posters, and Ghani is expected to win if elections are
held.
Some critics have accused the president of
unfairly using the perks of office, as well as the power of incumbency, to
counteract public disappointment in his government’s failure to provide
security and jobs, and to engineer a fraudulent victory at the polls.
Ghani has denied the allegations while
embarking on a high-profile campaign that includes TV ads asking the voters to
“trust me again” and flights to rallies in far-flung provinces. The capital has
been flooded with giant posters of Ghani’s image, including one that just went
up on a 30-foot-high blast wall and shows the former World Bank official
wearing a yellow turban.
