Monday, August 18, 2014

Ambassador James Cunningham’s Interview with VOA --- VOA: Governor of Balkh, Governor Atta Muhammad Noor, has once again warned of strife if Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is not announced the winner of the election. Are his remarks a major concern to you and to the United States? And what message did you give him in your meeting with Governor Atta recently? -- Ambassador Cunningham: Well I tried to make the case to him of the need to have a new president who has broad support among the Afghan people, both in terms of the welfare of Afghanistan but also in terms of having a partner that the international community can work with. Not just the United States, but all of Afghanistan’s international partners will want to see a president who is arrived at through a credible process. That’s what the audit will do. And a president who has broad support including, very importantly, among people who didn’t vote for him. -- I’ve been talking to Afghanistan’s political leaders for two years about the need to focus not just on the political competition of the election but what happens after the election in terms of the unity of the country, and many of them agree with that. The question is how to do it. -- So we talked about that, and I also told him that it is harmful, I think, to be making statements forecasting strife, occupying buildings, and that sort of thing, and if the election doesn’t go the way that Governor Atta or somebody else thinks it ought to go. It’s in the nature of political competition that one person wins and other people don’t win, and that just has to be accepted. That’s the nature of democracy. But in a democracy you also need to be able to talk to people who did not support you and try to get their support, and that’s what the candidates are doing now. - Read More, http://kabul.usembassy.gov/tr-081614v.html

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