If an exceptionally high voter turnout in Afghan presidential election had raised hopes of a stable future for that country the unending feud between the two front-runners, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, over final result, is threatening to cause political chaos. Abdullah, who emerged as the front-runner in the first round of election on April 5 but failed to reach the 50 percent threshold to become president, trailed behind Ghani in the June runoff. He refused to accept the result, complaining of an "industrial scale" fraud to deny him victory. His team accused President Karzai, to whom he lost the 2009 election - also amid allegations of fraud - of having gone out of his way to favour Ghani, a fellow Pashtun. The result may have genuinely upset Abdullah as the first round gave him 44.9 percent votes well ahead of Ghani's 31.5 percent, and the candidate who finished third, former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, had announced to support him in the run-off.
In any event, the last thing Afghanistan needs at this point in time is disunity in Kabul. Which is why US Secretary of State John Kerry made a special trip to Kabul to resolve the dispute, and persuaded the two candidates to accept a complete audit of the vote to take out any fake votes. As many as 700 international election observers have been in the country to oversee the audit being conducted under the UN auspices. The review exercise could not be more impartial than that. Still, after more than two weeks of recounting Abdullah's representatives refused to attend the process, objecting to the criteria of judging clean or fraudulent votes. Mercifully, following 'tense negotiations' with the UN, Abdullah has now agreed to rejoin the audit. And, of course, the US ambassador must also have played a role in the negotiations.
It hardly needs saying that the US and its allies want to leave a stable government in Kabul when they withdraw all combat troops at the end of the current year. Unity among anti-Taliban forces is even more important for Pakistan. A weak government in Kabul undermined by factional feuds will benefit only the Taliban. A recent New York Times report points out that at a time an election crisis is endangering stability of the government, "the Taliban's increasingly aggressive campaign is threatening another crucial facet of the American withdrawal plan, full security by Afghan forces this year." Even if the Taliban manage to fully establish control only in Pashtun provinces that could pose a serious challenge to this country's security. It would not be surprising if they form a common cause with willing Pashtun insurgents on this side of the Durand Line to extend Islamic emirate of Afghanistan into Pakistani tribal areas as well. The need of the hour is for all concerned - the anti-Taliban Afghan parties/factions, US, as well as Pakistan - to forge a united front against the looming threat. It is important indeed to take Abdullah Abdullah along in resolving the election crisis. He is former leader of the Northern Alliance and also commands considerable following among the Pashtuns for his reform-oriented politics. But he too must understand that this is no time to create unnecessary problems. He must accept whatever is the outcome of an impartial, UN supervised audit of the votes.