KABUL, July 26 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai formally filed his candidacy for October presidential elections Monday, dropping a powerful warlord from his ticket and naming a brother of late resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood as his running mate.
Karzai chose Ahmed Zia Masood as first vice president and current vice president Karim Khalili as a second running mate in the country's landmark first free and fair elections.
President Karzai dropped powerful warlord Marshal Mohammed Qasim Fahim, who is currently serving as Defence Minister and is another of Afghanistan's four vice-presidents, from the presidential ticket.
Fahim said he would back Karzai's former education minister Yonus Qanooni, who announced his intention to stand against Karzai today.
"The main leaders of Afghanistan are with us" said Qanooni.
Karzai said Masood was the best choice to lead the country alongside him because he hailed from a "noble legacy of Afghanistan, of jihad and of sacrifice to this country, as the brother of our martyred hero Ahmad Shah.
"I hope the Afghan people will recognise us as a good team and I hope that the Afghan people will vote for us," Karzai told a press conference.
Over a dozen candidates were expected to stand against Karzai in October polls and the final list of nominations would be published Thursday.
Afghanistan's October presidential polls were twice delayed because of security threats.
More complex parliamentary elections have been postponed until April 2005 to allow the country time to quell a wave of attacks on government officials, aid workers and civilians.