Eighteen candidates competed in Afghanistan's inaugural presidential election on 9 October 2004, with incumbent Hamid Karzai, 46, entering as the clear front-runner. The US-backed Pashtun leader paired with Tajik politician Ahmed Zia Masood and Hazara leader Karim Khalili as running mates, a ticket built to draw cross-ethnic support.
His chief challenger was Yunus Qanooni, 47, a Tajik and former education minister with strong backing among Northern Alliance commanders and a power base in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul. Uzbek militia commander Abdul Rashid Dostam, 50, operating near Mazar-i-Sharif, and Hazara leader Mohammed Mohaqeq, 49, also mounted campaigns rooted in their regional followings.
The broader field included Abdul Latif Pedram, a 41-year-old Tajik poet who had studied in France and returned from Taliban-era exile to challenge Karzai directly. Physician Masooda Jalal, 41, was the sole woman in the race; she had previously sought the transitional leadership post at the 2002 constitutional loya jirga.
The eldest candidate was Abdul Hadi Khalilzai, 72, a former teacher and lawyer, while 67-year-old Islamic literature professor Abdul Satar Sirat, who had backed Karzai after losing to him at the Bonn conference in 2001, also stood. In all, the 18-candidate field spanned warlords, academics, journalists, and a pediatric surgeon.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.