On September 21, 2014, after two rounds of difficult elections, the new President of Afghanistan was determined. It was 65-year-old Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. His presidential rival, Abdullah Abdullah, will head the government.
The bitter struggle for the post of the new President of Afghanistan has continued since April 2014, when the first round of elections was held. Its results were recognized as controversial, after which a second round was announced, the results of which again did not bring an unambiguous answer to the question - who was elected President of the country.
Election results
Almost a month after the second round of elections, the political life of Afghanistan was in a dangerous impasse, a way out of which was found as a result of agreements mediated by the UN and the United States. To avoid radical confrontations, political opponents finally came to an agreement that resulted in former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a prominent intellectual and former World Bank official, becoming President of Afghanistan. He will be responsible for strategic functions. Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist by training, became the Executive Director of the government (there is no nominally the post of prime minister in Afghanistan). His responsibilities will include the daily problems of the country. Now it is these two who will have to solve many problems, and of all the existing three main ones:
- the withdrawal of the American military contingent from the country, which should be completed by the end of December 2014;
- resumption of negotiations with the Taliban, which, largely thanks to the amnesty announced by the country's previous president, Hamid Karzai, has again strengthened its position;
- difficult economic situation.
Immediate prospects
President Ghani, while still in the post of Minister of Finance, established himself as a technocrat with a clear vision of the implementation of the planned projects for the socio-economic renewal of the country. The sooner they can be launched, the better for Afghanistan. But only if former rivals can truly work together, despite all the irreconcilable contradictions, Afghanistan can possibly avoid the economic catastrophe that could erupt if the country is no longer subsidized by Western allies. It is obvious that it was precisely this bleak prospect that made them abandon their ambitions and agree to the proposed option of governing the country.
Further, some political analysts expect the new president to appeal to the NATO countries to suspend the withdrawal of troops at least until the end of 2016. Even taking into account the fact that this is contrary to the statement of the Taliban, addressed to the participants in the NATO summit, which took place in September 2014 in the UK. In it, the Taliban announced that they were trying to solve all the country's problems on their own. After discussing this issue, the leaders of 28 NATO member states and official representatives of 27 other states considered it expedient to end the military mission and only send military advisers to Afghanistan, but the final decision will be announced after the address of the new President of the country.
It should be noted that the amnesty announced by the previous President of the country Hamid Karzai, carried out by him within the framework of the ceasefire, allowed both sympathetic, but not active members of the movement, and several leaders of the Taliban movement, supported by Pakistan, to be released, and this has already destabilized the situation in the country. especially in its northern provinces, since this is how the Taliban return to the areas from which they were expelled.
If Ghani and Abdullah, and even to a greater extent their adherents, do not sabotage each other's endeavors - especially locally, in the provinces - but really unite their efforts, they can give Afghanistan a real chance to get out of the chaos and violence that characterize life. of this country for many years.
