Afghan election workers carry a plastic box containing election material into a polling station at Jamee mosque in the city of Herat. PHOTO: AFP
KABUL:
Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah – the frontrunner to succeed Hamid Karzai as the country’s president – has voiced the possibility of teaming up with a rival but ruled out forming a coalition government in order to avoid a second-round runoff.
Speaking to Reuters at his home on Wednesday, Abdullah said he met his rival, another ex-foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, shortly after the April 5 election to discuss possibilities. “I had asked for that meeting. We had a good discussion. I will not go into the details of it but you can imagine that at this stage we are not talking about the weather or leisure,” he said.
“We have been in the same government in the old days, we have been friends for many years. So that is the personal part of it. The rest of it depends on the common understanding of certain subjects and certain policies.”
Asked if he could work with the other frontrunner – ex-finance minister Ashraf Ghani – he said with a tinge of sarcasm: “Mr Ghani has declared himself the winner. So let him absorb the victory.”
Abdullah ruled out the possibility of a coalition government.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 10th, 2014.
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