Afghan president to go ahead with inauguration despite rival's offer

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will go ahead with his inauguration on Monday, a top aide said, despite an offer by his main political rival challenging him for the job to postpone his parallel swearing-in ceremony. The wrangling over the disputed Sept. 28 election threatens to bring political chaos to Afghanistan days after the United States and the Taliban signed a deal on the withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces after 18 years of war.

The Election Commission last month announced that Ghani had retained power by winning the September election. But his long-time rival, Abdullah Abdullah, rejected that and proclaimed himself winner. Both men have planned inauguration ceremonies for Monday but Abdullah said he would postpone his swearing-in, if Ghani responded by cancelling his.

However, a member of Ghani's team, Shah Hussain Murtazavi, told Reuters that nothing had changed and Ghani's inauguration was going ahead as scheduled. "The guest arrival has just started and we will have our ceremony in a few hours," said Murtazavi.

The political crisis comes as the government is meant to be preparing for talks with the Taliban, to follow up on the Feb. 29 pact between the United States and the insurgents on the withdrawal of U.S. troops. A Western diplomat in Kabul said the face-off might be protracted.

"If Ghani is determined to hold his swearing-in then Abdullah may suddenly decide to hold it too ... it's all up in the air for now," said the diplomat, who has invitations from both of the rival camps. U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been holding talks with both Abdullah and Ghani's camps over the weekend to try and broker a solution to the impasse, diplomatic and political sources said.

Abdullah has offered to postpone his swearing in, in response to an appeal by Khalilzad, Abdullah's spokesman, Omid Maisam, said. Ghani and Abdullah are old rivals who both held roles in the previous government under a U.S.-brokered power-sharing agreement that followed the previous election in 2014.

A former foreign minister, Abdullah held the specially created post of chief executive in the outgoing government. Based on the election law, the swearing-in ceremony for the president must be held within 30 days of the announcement of the election result.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced Ghani the winner on Feb. 18. (Writing by Euan Rocha, Rupam Jain Editing by Clarence Fernandez)