KABUL, Afghanistan -- The two candidates for president of Afghanistan both pledged Friday to reverse the expulsion of an American journalist from the country as soon as they take office.
Their condemnation of the Afghan government's order expelling New York Times correspondent Matthew Rosenberg was a rare point of agreement between the two rivals, who have been in deadlocked talks over the disputed results of presidential elections and are attempting to agree on forming a coalition government.
"We believe this act is completely against all applicable constitutional law of Afghanistan and the standards of freedom of speech," said Fazal Rahman Oria, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, one of the two candidates.
Abdullah's opponent, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, in a staff meeting Thursday "personally condemned the expulsion as against Afghan law, against electoral law and a violation of freedom of speech," according to a spokesman for Ahmadzai, Seddiq Patman.
The spokesmen for both candidates said a new government would cancel the expulsion of Rosenberg.
Formation of a new government is expected as early as next week if both sides are able to reach an agreement on forming a national unity government and on the laborious work of auditing the election results.
They are under pressure from the international community to agree on who should be declared the winner, to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement that also accommodates the loser and to do so before a NATO meeting in early September that will discuss future military support for the Afghan government.
In the meantime, President Hamid Karzai has remained in office. Karzai was believed to be behind the order to expel Rosenberg, 40, who became the first foreign journalist kicked out of Afghanistan since the Taliban regime. He was given 24 hours to leave Wednesday, and he departed Thursday.
The government blamed the expulsion on an article Rosenberg wrote describing talk among some powerful Afghans of forming an interim governing committee if the two candidates could not come to an amicable agreement, a move that would amount to a coup.
"We believe the people who have potentially originated this black conspiracy, which is completely contrary to democracy and the election process, are the ones who are behind the expulsion of the New York Times reporter after he disclosed it," said Oria, who also accused Karzai and his supporters of trying to prolong his time in power by taking advantage of the electoral impasse.
"I assure you that the day the political transition takes place and power is transferred to the team of Reform and Partnership, or to a government of national unity, the honorable reporter of The New York Times will be allowed to come back to the country and we will make sure to provide him with full security, safety and all possible journalistic opportunity," he said, referring to the name of Abdullah's electoral coalition, Reform and Partnership.
Rosenberg left the country after being served an order by the attorney general's office, which described him as a spy and said his article had endangered national security. It did not, however, specify which laws Rosenberg had allegedly violated or give any specifics about its allegations.
Media lawyers in Afghanistan said the government had not followed its own legal procedures for handling complaints against the news media in the case.
A Section on 08/23/2014