Afghan peace deal in chaos as presidential rivals both swear themselves in

SQUABBLING Afghan presidential rivals have threatened to both declare themselves president in duelling inauguration ceremonies, throwing plans for negotiations with the Taliban into chaos.

The talks among Afghans on both sides of the conflict were supposed to be a crucial step in a Us-taliban peace deal, signed less than two weeks ago.

But the dispute between the top two candidates in last year’s presidential election over who actually won, the incumbent,

Ashraf Ghani, or Abdullah Abdullah, means the Afghan government appears unable to present a united front.

When Washington and the Taliban insurgents signed the deal, the promise was that Afghans would sit down and negotiate a road map for their country’s future.

They are looking to hammer out such thorny issues as women’s rights, free speech and the fate of tens of thousands of armed men on both sides of the 18-year war.

Those negotiations are set to be held on Tuesday in Oslo.

The US has said its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be linked to the Taliban keeping their counter-terrorism promises, but not to the success of talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Afghanistan’s election commission has declared Mr Ghani as the winner of September’s vote.

His former partner in a unity government, Mr Abdullah, as well as the election complaints commission, said the results are fraught with irregularities.

As a result, both Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah have declared themselves winners.

The two candidates are also backed by warlords who have a stake in who becomes president, complicating negotiations to break the stalemate being conducted by Washington’s peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.

The rival presidential candidates called journalists to their respective inaugurations early on Monday, only to delay them for a few hours while more talks were being held.

A senior member of Mr Abdullah’s team, Basir Salangi, told local Afghan channel Tolo TV that the US peace envoy has asked both sides to delay their inaugurations for three days to sort out the stalemate.

Mr Abdullah reportedly said he was ready, but would go ahead with his ceremony on Monday if Mr Ghani refuses to postpone.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said that the Taliban are still committed to the deal, but said the duelling presidential inaugurations “are not good for the Afghan nation”.

Mr Khalilzad still has to get some agreement on a prisoner release, which was supposed to be settled before the intra-afghan negotiations could begin.

The peace deal signed by the US and Taliban said 5,000 Taliban prisoners and up to 1,000 captives from the government side would be freed as a goodwill gesture ahead of the intra-afghan negotiations.