KABUL — Ending months of tension, Afghanistan’s election commission named a president Sunday, hours after the two leading candidates signed a power-sharing deal that names one of them as the country’s new chief executive.
The commission named Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai as the winner and next president and noted that Abdullah Abdullah will be chief executive. But it did not release final vote totals amid suggestions that doing so could inflame tensions.
The deal brings to a close an election season that began in April, when millions of Afghans went to the polls despite threats from Taliban militants.
U.S. officials lauded the deal and said they thought Ghani Ahmadzai would sign a security agreement soon after taking his oath of office that would allow about 10,000 American forces to remain in Afghanistan next year.
“I am very happy today that both of my brothers, Dr. Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, in an Afghan agreement for the benefit of this country, for the progress and development of this country, that they agreed on the structure affirming the new government of Afghanistan,” said outgoing President Hamid Karzai.
