Afghan Biographies

Presidential Candidates 2014 Election


Name Presidential Candidates 2014 Election
Ethnic backgr.
Date of birth
Function/Grade Presidential Candidates preliminary Results
History and Biodata

The final preliminary results  of the Presidential  Election of 05 April 2014 are as follows:

Abdullah: 2,973,707 (44.94%)

Ghani: 2,082,417 (31.47%)

Rassul: 759,540 (11.48%)

Sayyaf: 468,340 (7.08%)

Helal: 180,859 (2.73%)

Sherzai: 106,673 (1.61%)

Sultanzoi: 30,737 (0.46%)

Arsala: 15.394 (0.23%)

IEC officials said the names of the Presidential hopefuls would appear on the ballot as follows (20131126):
1- Dr. Abdullah Abdullah;
2- Dawoud Sultanzoi;
3 - Abdul Rahim Wardak;
4 - Qayoum Karzai;
5 - Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai;
6 - Sardar Mohammad Nadir Naeem;
7 - Zalmai Rasoul;
8 - Qutbuddin Hilal;
9 - Gul Agha Sherzoi;
10 - Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf;
11 - Hidayat Amin Arsala.

 

Approved 11 Candidates as of 2013119
The number of Presidential candidates running the April 2014 election to succeed President Hamid Karzai has now gone up from 10 to 11 with the addition of Sultanzoy, who was originally cut by the IEC =ctober 2013 due to his reportedly having dual-citizenship with Afghanistan and the U.S. 

Approved 10 Candidates as of 20131022:

Abdullah Abdullah, Ahsraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, Abdul Rahim Wardak, Sardar Mohammad Naeem, Qayyum Karzai, Gul Agha Shirzai, Hedayat Amim Arsala, Qutbuddin Helal and Zalmay Rassoul.

16 Eliminated:

Bismillah Shir, Fazl Karim Najmi, Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, Sayed Ishaq Gilani, Sarwar Ahmadzai, Hamidullah Qadiri, Daoud Sultanzoy, Aziz Ludin, Anwar Ahadi, Salman Ali Dostzada, Farooq Azam, Mrs. Khadija Ghaznawi, Nader Shah Ahmadzai, Abdul Hadi Dabir, Noor Rahman Liwal and Dawar Nadin.

 

According to IEC officials the reason for most of the disqualifications was that candidates failed to properly meet the 100,000 supporting voter cards threshold that the Commission put in place this year. Additionally, they said a number of the eliminated candidates held dual-citizenship.

 

The list published on Tuesday 22. Oct 2013  was not the final list, which is not expected to be completed until November 16 upon closure of all complaint cases against candidates received by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). 

 

 

 

The following 27 candidates are listed in the chronological order of their registration (20131013):
 

1- Bismillah Sher
First vice president, Abdul Karim Ahmadyar
Second vice president, Sultan Hamid Sultani

2- Dr. Abdullah Abdullah (Pashtun/Tajik)
First vice president, Mohammad Khan (Pashtun)
Second vice president, Mohammad Mohaqiq (Hazara)

3- Fazl Karim Najmi
First vice president, Mohammad Sabir Takmeen
Second vice president, Susan Hajati

4- Abdul Rabb Rasul Sayyaf (Pashtun)
First vice president, Mohammad Ismail Khan (Tajik)
Second vice president, Abdul Wahab Urfan Erfan (Uzbek)

5- Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai
First vice president, Abdullah Bromand
Second vice president, Abed Nazar

6- Qutbuddin Hilal
First vice president, Enayatullah Enayat
Second vice president, Mohammad Ali Nabizada

7- Abdul Rahim Wardak (Pashtun)
First vice president, Shah Abdul Ahad Afzali (Tajik)
Second vice president, Sayed Hussian Anwari (Shiite/Hazara)

8- Del Agha Kohdamani

The Independent Election Commission has disqualified Kohdamani from running in next year’s presidential elections on failing to meet the required candidacy criteria.(20131013)
First vice president, Zalmai Hamraz
Second vice president, Toorpakai Azizi

9- Sayed Ishaq Gailani
First vice president, Zakaria Noori
Second vice president, Seema Ismati

10- Sarwar Ahmadzai
First vice president, Abdul Rahman
Second vice president, Kabir Quraishi

11- Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (Pashtun)
First vice president, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum (Uzbek)
Second vice president, Sarwar Danish (Hazara)

12- Dr. Zalmai Rassoul (Pashtun)
First vice president, Ahmad Zia Massoud (Tajik)
Second vice president, Habiba Surabi (Hazara)

13- Sardar Muhammad Nadir Naeem
First vice president, Taj Mohammad Akbar
Second vice president, Azizullah Puya

14- Hamidullah Qaderi
First vice president, Mohammad Arif Baraki
Second vice president, Humaira Haqmal

15- Daoud Sultanzoy
First vice president, Ahmad Saeedi
Second vice president, Kazima Mohaqiq

16- Qayum Karzai (Pashtun)
First vice president, Wahidullah Shahrani (Uzbek)
Second vice president, Ibrahim Qasmi (Hazara) Mohammad Ebrahim Qasimi, was disqualified for next year’s presidential election because of his dual nationality(Canadian nationalit)Karzai`s election team on 20131021introduced Mohammad Noor Akbari as his replacement to the Independent Election Commission (IEC).(20131023)

17- Gul Agha Sherzai (Pashtun)
First vice president, Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi (Hazara)
Second vice president, Mohammad Hashim Zarea (Uzbek)

18- Azizullah Ludin
First vice president, Abdul Rahim Karimi
Second vice president, Hamidullah Rahimi

19- Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi
First vice president, Hashmatullah Mujadidi
Second vice president, Ismail Qasimyar

20- Hedayat Amin Arsala
First vice president, Gen. Khudaidad
Second vice president, Safia Seddiqi

21- Salman Ali Doostzadeh
First vice president, Mohammad Yousuf Amin
Second vice president, Aziza Rahban Wardak

22- Farooq Azam
First vice president, Abdul Ghani Asalati
Second vice president, Ahmad Shah Payeezi

23- Khadija Ghaznawi
First vice president, Mohammad Qasim Fayezai
Second vice president, Khair Mohammad Barez

24- Nadir Shah Ahmadzai
First vice president, Faiz Mohammad Daqiq
Second vice president, Qadam Ali Khadim

25- Abdul Hadi Dabeer
First vice president, Sayed Ahmadullah Padshah
Second vice president, Mawlawi Nesar Ahmad Khair Andish

26- Noor Rahman Liwal
First vice president, Ahamad Jan Nazar
Second vice president, Rafiullah

27- Dr. Dawar Nadin
First vice president, Mohammad Hassan Safi
Second vice president, Husai Andar


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First Assessment:

 

On Sunday (20131006), with the final list of candidates set, Afghans and Western officials added another item to the growing list of concerns about the vote: the candidates themselves. There is the professorial technocrat and the urbane diplomat, neither of whom has any natural constituency in Afghanistan. There is a man accused of being a pedophile who was once a darling of the CIA, and another accused of war crimes who once tried to enact a law granting amnesty to people accused of war crimes. And then there is the candidate who would not even get the vote of his own brother, and his brother is President Hamid Karzai, the man they are all vying to replace.
 

The candidates, in many ways, represent a cross section of the political and economic elite that has risen in Afghanistan in the past dozen years with the support of the United States. For all the strivers who have ushered Afghanistan into the modern world since the Taliban were ousted – building websites, pushing women’s rights, starting television networks – the election seems destined to remind everyone that this is still a country governed by conservative old men, many with checkered pasts.
 

The early front-runner is Zalmay Rassoul, a polished former foreign minister who would be welcome in any Western capital, but lacks a significant constituency in Afghanistan. That may not matter, though, if the conventional wisdom here is accurate: Rassoul is believed to be the favourite of Hamid Karzai, who has solidified his hold on Afghanistan’s electoral machinery in hopes of seeing a pliable successor elected.
 

The leading opposition candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, placed second to Hamid Karzai in the 2009 election, which saw tens of thousands of fraudulent votes thrown out. He, too, is polished and is seen as relatively clean in a country where corruption and criminality are so pervasive among the political class that Western diplomats acknowledge that no one with any power is totally clean. His running mates are a different story. If elected, his first vice-president would be Mohammad Khan, a Pashtun official of the Hezb-i-Islami party, whose militant wing is still fielding insurgents against the government. His second vice-president would be Mohammad Mohaqiq, a leader of the Hazara ethnic group who stands accused of war crimes. In fact, it was the bodyguards protecting Mohaqiq who prompted the election commission to ask for guns to be kept out of its compound. When Abdullah, Khan and he arrived to register Wednesday, his bodyguards got into a fight with the men guarding the commission chairman.
 

Another presidential candidate is Qayum Karzai, the president’s older brother. He owns restaurants in Baltimore and served briefly as a member of the Afghan Parliament. More recently, he served as an unofficial adviser to his brother, who has, nonetheless, so far refused to back him. Hamid Karzai made one last, futile attempt Saturday night (20131005)to persuade Qayum Karzai to stay out of the race, according to advisers to the president.

A fourth candidate is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who is also accused of war crimes and whose signature initiative during a stint in Parliament was trying to enact a law granting amnesty to those accused of war crimes. He also tried to repeal the Elimination of Violence Against Women Act. Yet the roots of his infamy run far deeper than the accusation he faces: He is the man who first brought Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan.

Also running is Ashraf Ghani, a professorial former World Bank expert who most recently served as one of Hamid Karzai’s top advisers. He ran for president in the 2009 election, placing a distant fourth with about 3 per cent of the vote. Few here believe he can do much better this time, despite his name recognition among Westerners in Kabul and Washington.

And then there is Gul Agha Shirzai, a former governor of Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces who is accused of abusing children. Though he vehemently denies the accusations, many diplomats, journalists and Afghan officials say they have seen Shirzai at social occasions with bacha bazi, underage boys who dance dressed as girls and are often kept as personal sex slaves by powerful Afghan men, particularly warlords.

 

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Background:

Afghan comedian Bahadorak filed for a Presidential bid along with three companions, bringing humor to a process so far laden with grandstanding and doomsaying. Bahadorak was the only candidate that filed with three vice-presidents. Abdulak, a member of the Unemployed Union, Nazerak and Jana Khala accompanied him as his first, second and third vice presidents respectively. (20131006)

 

 

Afghan mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani has resigned from his position in a bid to participate in the upcoming presidential elections. Wahidullah Shahrani is the among the three Afghan ministers who have resigned to run for 2014 presidential elections. His resignation was announced along with the trade and commerce minister, Anwar-ul-haq Ahadi. In the meantime, reports suggest that Azizullah Ludin, head of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption has also resigned from his position to run for presidential elections.(20131006)

 

Former head of the security transition commission Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai filed his nomination for the upcoming presidential elections along with Abdul Rashid Dostum as his first vice-president, and former justice minister Sarwar Danish as his second vice-president to run for 2014 presidential elections. Hanif Atmar, Moeen Mrastial, Wolesi Jirga members Zahir Qadir, Hameedzai Lalai, Asadullah Sadati and Naqibullah Fayed were among those present on the occasion.(20131006)

Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, the brother of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, was also among the faces that converged on the IEC. Abdullah Bromand is listed as his first Vice President and Abid Nazari as the second Vice President.(20131005)


Dr. Zalmai Rasoul appeared in the independent election commission of Afghanistan along with his first vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud and second vice-president Bamyan Governor Dr. Habiba Surabi.(20141006)
 

Nader Naeem, a grandson of former king Daud Khan, also filed his nomination papers. He chose Taj Mohammad Akbar and Azizullah Poya as his first and second deputies.(20131006)

 

Former transport minister Hamidullah Qadiri also formally joined the presidential race. Mohammad Arif Baraki and Mrs. Humaira Haqmal are his first and second VPs.(20131006)

Wolesi Jirga member Daud Sultanzoy registered with the commission, choosing Ahmad Saeed -- a political analyst -- and Kazima Mohaqiq, a university teacher, as his deputies.(20131006)

Qayum Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai, filled his Nomination papers with the IEC. Karzai’s vice-presidents include former Afghan mines minister Wahidullah Shahrani and former lawmaker Ibrahim Qasemi who resigned from their positions this morning .(20131006)


Qutbudin Helal, a senior leader of the Hekmatyar-led anti-government Hizb-e-Islami of Afghanistan, has switched sides and registered his name to contest in the Afghan presidential polls set for April next year. A close aide to Gulbudin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami party of Afghanistan, Helal served as acting prime minister when the mujahideen ruled Kabul in the 1990s. His running mates are  Enayatullah Enayat and Muhammad Ali Nabizada are his first and second Vice Presidents respectively.(20131005)

Said Ishaq Gilani, a former member of House of Representatives, along with Zekria Noori as first Vice President and Seeman Esmati as second Vice President also registered for candidacy.(20131005)

Fazal Karim Najami
filed his nomination along with his two vice-president, Sabir Tamkin and Susan d Hajati. Fazal Karim Najami has previously worked as advisor to ministry of agriculture and rural rehabilitation ministry. Najmi has also served as director of the Famine Early Warning System, an affiliate of the US Agency for International.(201301003)

Dil Agha Kohdamani, somewhat of a unknown compared to the others that filed recently, registered with Zalmai Hamraz and Torpekai Aziz as his first and second Vice Presidents respectively.(20131005)

Bismillah Sher and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah filed nominations for the presidential elections.(20101003)

Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf officially filed his nomination for Presidency with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday. He is supported by Abdul Rashid Dostum. Along with Sayyaf, Muhammad Ismail, the former Minister of Energy and Water; and Abdul Wahab Irfan, former Senator, also filed their nomination for the post of First Vice-President and Second Vice-President, respectively. Irfan is a member of Dostum´s Junbish-i-Milli party.(20131003)


Dr. Sarwar Ahmadzai filed nomination papers. He has chosen Dr. Abdul Rahman as his first VP and Kabir Quraishi as second.(20131006)

Sardar Mohammad Nadir Naeem, a grandson of the late president Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan, on announced his candidacy for the 2014 presidential election.(20131003)

Karzai’s elder brother Qayum Karzai, foreign minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, and Ali Ahmad Jalali are the other potential candidates who are expected to run for the presidential run-off, after filing formal nomination with the Afghanistan independent election commission. Further nominations are expected as a number of high level government officials, including Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, chief of the security transition commission has resigned from his government post. (20131003)

Abdul Rahim Wardak senior advisor to president Hamid Karzai has resigned from his position to nominate himself his candidacy for the 2014 Presidential elections. (20141002)

Provincial governor for eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan Gul Agha Sherzoi on 201301003 confirmed his resignation as Nangarhar governor. He said he will formally file nomination for the upcoming presidential election after electing his first and second vice president.
It is said that Sherzai has selected Ahmad Zia Massoud and Sayed Hussain Anwari as his first and second mates in next year's election.
 

Under Afghan election law, presidential candidates must be at least 40 years of age, which would apparently prevent Mrs. Koofi (38) from running in the upcoming Presidential Election slated for April 5. But while Koofi's headline name provides legitimacy, skeptics note that powerful, male backers stand behind her. And this, they say, raises concerns that they intend to use her as an electoral ploy to win the support of young people and women and increase their standing with the international community. Koofi has close ties with influential politicians from the country's north, including Ahmad Zia Masud; Abdullah Abdullah, the 2009 election runner-up; and Yunus Qanuni, the former speaker of parliament.(20131001)



Thirty likely presidential candidates, including important political figures, were issued with information kits on next year’s polls, said an official at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on 20130917. The recipients of the information kits included:

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Ex Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ahmad Zia Massoud,
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai,
Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, Minister of Commerce,
Hanif Atmar,
Mohammad Mohaqiq,
Abdul Rahim Wardak,
Hakim Nawrozi Hakim Nurzai, Presidential Adviser
Gul Agha Sherzai, Governor Nangahar,
Sardar Mohammad Nader Naeem,
Abdullah Kandahari,
Sarwar Ahmadzai,
Dil Aqa Kohdamani, Del Agha Khodamani, from Ishaq Gailani's Solidarity Movement
Daud Sultanzoy, Ex MP, now TOLO TV Presenter,
Mrs. Khadija Ghaznavi, Khadija Ghaznawi, only female candidate so far,
Mohammad Yosuf Wayar Mohammad Yunos Wyar,
Yunus Fakoor Younos Fokkur, political commentator from Zabul,
and some others.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Modified 2014-04-29
Established 2013-09-17