Afghan President Sacks Most of His Cabinet Amid Post-Vote Deadlock

Since the “settlement” of the Afghan presidential election by installing Ashraf Ghani as de facto president and Abdullah Abdullah as something of a co-president in the newly created “chief executive” post, the two sides have bickered non-stop over cabinet positions.

Both sides have allies who wanted top cabinet posts in return for their support in the election, and both sides have been able to claim something related to victory in the election, such as it was. Officials say a new cabinet is likely many weeks away.

That’s not stopping Ghani for wholesale sacking of the outgoing cabinet, purging large numbers of allies of former President Hamid Karzai, though it is leaving many of those cabinets without an actual leader in the interim.

Whether this will allow Ghani to usurp some of the power remains to be seen, but he was making much of his plans to sideline Abdullah post-election even after the deal was made, and he seems keen to ensure that the existing centralization of power under the presidency is not too heavy interrupted.