U.S Secretary Met Karzai In Kabul

KABUL: (Middle East Press) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday morning at the Presidential Palace to discuss the protracted election process.

During their discussion, Karzai emphasized that the people of Afghanistan have waited for a long period of time to see the result of their bravery and determination of casting their votes for a new president and continue to linger in hopes for a set swearing in day.

He added that the protracted election process has impacted the country severely, hurting the country’s government affairs, economy and security; the condition can be seen by the increase of the number of attacks. Karzai, is said to have implied with importance, that the results must be announced by the end of August.

Mr. Kerry is expected to meet with presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, in order to discuss the vote auditing process and the terms of the national unity government framework they agreed to last month.

The cancellation process, according to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), is expected to begin next week.

Election officials have maintained that both contenders already agreed to the cancellation criteria, which was firstly formulated and proposed by the United Nations.

They have pointed out they will move forward with the process regardless of Abdullah’s objections.

Kerry was admired for his function in spreading the crisis that gripped the election back in July, when Abdullah and his team boycotted the process amid accusations of fraud against top election officials and the Presidential Palace. At that time, many feared the election quarrel could turn aggressive.