After the (Afghanistan) Recount: No Unity Government?
Barring the results of a fraud commission’s recount of 10 percent of the ballots in the Afghanistan election, Hamid Karzai’s victory has been tallied at 54
Jul 31, 2020128.1K Shares2.2M Views
Barring the results of a fraud commission’s recount of 10 percent of the ballots in the Afghanistan election, Hamid Karzai’s victory has been tallied at 54 percent, meaning he can avoid a second round of voting. I turned to a U.S. diplomat, who agreed to speak only on background, to figure out what comes next.
Most importantly: chances are there won’t be a unity government, the preferred remedy for some in the Obama administrationfor an Afghan legitimacy crisis. “I don’t think Abdullah’s interested in a position in the government,” the diplomat said, referring to Karzai rival Abdullah Abdullah. “His stature has increased enormously,” and he has no reason to sacrifice that for a cabinet position. “I don’t think that a unity government that just involves personalities will do it,” the diplomat continued. Fundamentally, the problems with Afghan governance are structural, and so a more serious proposal for a unity government — not that this is necessarily in the cards — would be based on “a programmatic agenda for governance and constitutional change.”
The trouble is with the presidency itself, the diplomat noted. “Here you have a diverse country, ethnically and geographically, with a strong [central governing figure] and a winner-take-all system,” said the diplomat. “It’s a highly centralized political system in a highly decentralized country.”
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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