KABUL, July 26: Afghan President Hamid Karzai registered as a candidate on Monday for the October presidential election, as a new and potentially dangerous rival emerged to try and upset the overwhelming favourite and his US backers.
"I went to the Election Commission office ... and presented them my form for the candidacy," Mr Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace in Kabul. On the other side of town, Education Minister Yunus Qanuni announced he had submitted his resignation from the cabinet in order to be able to run in the presidential poll on Oct 9. Candidates cannot also hold ministerial portfolios.
Mr Karzai, from Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun clan, was installed in power after the fall of the Taliban late in 2001 and the United States has made no secret of its support for the fluent English speaker.
Analysts say the US administration wants to press on with the election, despite violence blamed on militants bent on disrupting the poll, because it needs a foreign policy success story ahead of George W. Bush's own re-election bid in November.
More than 20 candidates are expected to run for Afghan president, including a woman, but among the most serious challengers will be Mr Qanuni, a key figure in the Northern Alliance of ethnic minority factions that has clashed with Mr Karzai over his policies.
Mr Qanuni's candidacy may be backed by Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who led the Northern Alliance during the US-led war against the Taliban in late 2001 and had originally been expected to be Mr Karzai's main running mate.
Mr Fahim, also first vice president, has been seen by diplomats in Kabul as an obstacle to Mr Karzai's agenda, including his drive to disarm local factions that belong to the alliance.
When asked why he had not chosen Mr Fahim as running mate, Mr Karzai played down any rift, adding: "I thought we'd give to Afghanistan's young generation a chance of serving ... for a powerful Afghanistan."
ALLIANCE: Whether the Northern Alliance can unite behind a single candidate and challenge Mr Karzai remains to be seen. One wild card is the candidacy of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who has shifted sides throughout the turmoil of the recent past and who has vocally criticized Mr Karzai for favouring Pashtuns over ethnic minorities like his own.
Mr Karzai will want to avoid an election fought on ethnic lines. While Mr Karzai does not have a strong base of support in Kandahar, the southern city he hails from, the fact that he is a Pashtun who offers a semblance of stability and continuity in the volatile country could count in his favour. -Reuters
