Hamid Karzai called for head-to-head race in Afghan elections

Kabul: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday called for next year’s crucial election to be a US-style head-to-head contest between two candidates.

“My desire is that we should have a limited number of candidates as this is good for the country. If we have two presidential candidates, it would be better, but if we had four that is also not a problem,” Karzai said.

After serving two terms, Karzai must stand down next year for an election that will be the first ever democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan. However, there is widespread uncertainty over who and how many people will contest for the post.

Karzai named controversial former warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, 2009 runner-up Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani as possible candidates.