Afghan incumbent president registers for re-election

KABUL: President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday formally registered as a candidate for Afghanistan´s delayed presidential election, setting up a rematch with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in the July ballot. Ghani, who is seeking a second term, was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014 that was only resolved in a US-brokered power-sharing deal with Abdullah.

De facto prime minister Abdullah — Ghani´s partner in the fragile unity government — is among at least 14 other candidates who have joined the race. The president has replaced his current first vice president, Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, with Amrullah Saleh, an ethnic Tajik and a staunch opponent of the Taliban, for his 2019 ticket.