KABUL, Aug 10: Afghanistan's US-backed President Hamid Karzai will face 17 challengers including former ally and education minister Yunus Qanooni in historic presidential elections, the electoral commission announced on Tuesday. The list also includes a woman candidate Dr Massouda Jalal.

The main contest is expected to be between Mr Karzai and Mr Qanooni, who is part of the powerful ethnic Tajik bloc of former anti-Taliban commanders from the Northern Alliance.

The final list of 18 candidates for the Oct 9 polls, announced by the Joint Electoral Management Body in Kabul, also includes two powerful northern warlords despite a law banning military commanders from running for office.

A deluge of objections from the public was not enough for the joint UN-Afghan commission to disqualify three candidates who were known to be running private armies.

"We took note of the numerous objections regarding three candidates viewed as having unofficial military units and we asked those candidates to... endorse the immediate replacement of the commanders of units cited in the objections," the commission said in a statement.

Those candidates, who are thought to include Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam, ethnic Hazara commander Mohammed Mohaqeq, and Karzai's vice-president Karim Khalili, agreed to have officers from Afghanistan's fledgling national army.

The list of candidates unveiled on Tuesday, "gives credit to those criminals who have the blood of the people on their hands," said Mohammed Ibrahim Rashid, one of the presidential candidates.

From the original list of 23, three candidates were rejected and two withdrew their names. The joint UN-Afghan commission decided "that three of them were to be rejected for failure to comply with the nomination procedures," it said in a press statement. Candidates had to prove they had the support of at least 10,000 voters by showing their registration cards.

Some candidates failed to gather the requisite number of supporters' cards, while others have dual citizenship, which also disqualifies them, officials close to the process told AFP.