Ghani to seek re-election in Afghan presidential poll

KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will seek re-election in 2019, his office announced on Saturday, as potential rivals begin jockeying for the country’s top job ahead of the ballot.

Ghani, who was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014 that was only resolved in a US-brokered power-sharing deal, is expected to present himself to war-weary voters as the candidate who can end the 17-year conflict.

The 69-year-old acerbic academic, who has a reputation for shouting at subordinates and micromanaging the unity government, will try to capitalise on renewed US-led efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks, which are showing tentative signs of bearing fruit.

"I can confirm that President Ghani is seeking re-election next year," presidential palace spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi told AFP.

Ghani, who chose the widely feared ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum as his first running mate in the 2014 election, has not yet announced who he will pick this time round.

It also is not certain who will challenge Ghani in the April 20 ballot.

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s equivalent of prime minister, and former national security adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar, who quit in August, are among potential contenders.