KABUL, July 27 (AFP) - Afghan education minister Yunus Qanooni, who stepped down in order to stand against President Hamid Karzai in October elections, has emerged as a surprise rival who could offer a formidable challenge.
Although little known on the international stage, Qanooni has been a key player in Karzai's administration since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in 2001.
Qanooni was one of the senior lieutenants of late resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood who was assassinated by Al-Qaeda militants posing as journalists on September 9, 2001.
After the ouster of the Taliban, Qanooni headed the Northern Alliance delegation at the Bonn Conference in December 2001, which resulted in the first post-Taliban administration in the country.
The Northern Alliance was a grouping of powerful military commanders who joined together with US-led forces to topple the Taliban.
His reward for the Northern Alliance's victory over the Taliban in conjunction with the US-led air campaign was a key place in the interim government unveiled at the conference.
Originally appointed as interior minister in the new government, he was joined in the cabinet by two long-time allies and fellow ethnic Tajiks: Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Defence Minister Mohammed Qasim Fahim.
However, the appointments meant that Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic grouping in Afghanistan, were shut out of the three key ministries in the new regime and Qanooni was forced to relinquish his post under international pressure.
Since then he has worked actively to improve Afghanistan's education system, devastated by a quarter century of war, and to raise his own standing.
At a press conference to declare his candidacy Qanooni told reporters: "The main leaders of Afghanistan are with us."
He was supported by his two long-standing cohorts Abdullah and Fahim but also claimed the backing of several senior military commanders.
If he can manage to unite the majority of Northern Alliance commanders behind him, which remains to be seen, then he could present Karzai with a formidable opponent.
His candidacy was a last-minute announcement unveiled in the hours before the nomination deadline Monday and his two vice-presidential running mates Taj Mohammed Wardak and Ahmad Shah Khan have little political clout.
Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, will need to get the backing of northern generals in order to secure a clear majority in upcoming elections. But he has Masood's brother as his running mate.
Ahmed Zia Masood, as the brother of the late resistance leader, has impeccable Northern Alliance credentials.