Afghan president Hamid Karzai confirmed today that he will stand for re-election on August 20th, making official what had widely been expected.
Mr Karzai had long allowed it to be understood that he intended to run again, but had not formally announced his candidacy. A two-week period for candidates to register began on Saturday.
"I will go to have myself registered with my vice presidents," he told a news conference with visiting British prime minister Gordon Brown. He did not say when he would register.
A wide spectrum of former cabinet ministers, technocrats, regional governors and even an Afghan-born former US ambassador are thought to be contemplating bids to run against him, but the opposition faces an uphill battle as long as it remains divided.
Mr Karzai, who took power after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and won Afghanistan's first democratic presidential vote in 2004, has lost some support among the public and his Western backers as a Taliban insurgency has grown in the south.
His government is widely seen as corrupt, with officials building themselves marble mansions in Kabul while most of the country remains desperately poor. But none of his main opponents has broad backing or a strong political base.
He has not yet said who will stand with him for two vice presidential posts, a delicate question in the ethnically-divided country.
One of his former deputies, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, quit the opposition National Front last week to back
Leading likely rivals for Mr Karzai include former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, former finance ministers Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi and Ashraf Ghani, Nangarhar provincial governor Gul Agha Sherzai and possibly even Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghan-born former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations.
Reuters