KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Would-be candidates for the presidency of Afghanistan have through Oct. 6 to formally declare their intentions, and it's anyone's guess who will end up running and who will win. Afghan politics are largely about patronage and being on the winning team, so many potential candidates may wait to submit their names toward the end of the registration period, once they have a better sense of who else is running.
There's no shortage of speculation about potential nominees for the April 5 vote, however. The following are some of the names being floated:
ZALMAI RASSOUL: Serves as Afghanistan's foreign minister, and at this early stage is considered the favorite in the race. Rassoul is a former national security adviser to the government who has tended to stay out of the limelight, and could up end being a consensus candidate among many political factions in the country. He has a medical degree and is fluent in five languages, including French, English and Italian.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: An opposition leader who unsuccessfully ran against incumbent President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 election. Abdullah is a seasoned politician as well as an eye doctor with a strong following among ethnic Tajiks in Afghanistan's north. He also was a close aide and adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Masood, the Northern Alliance rebel commander famed for his resistance to Soviet occupation and the Taliban.
ASHRAF GHANI: A well-known academic with a reputation as a technocrat and being somewhat temperamental, Ghani chairs the commission in charge of transitioning responsibility for security from the U.S.-led coalition to the Afghan security forces. Ghani is a former finance minister who ran in the 2009 presidential elections but got just 3 percent of the vote.
