Ex-Afghan foreign minister stands against Karzai

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - A former Afghan foreign minister registered to run for president on Wednesday, but other opposition figures had yet to make clear if they would unite to give one candidate the best chance of ousting Hamid Karzai.

Candidates have until Friday to register for the August 20 election. Karzai registered on Monday hours before flying to the United States for his first meeting with Barack Obama since he was elected U.S. president.

So far, the opposition has had little success in uniting behind a single candidate with a broad enough base of support to challenge Karzai, who has led the country since U.S.-backed Afghan forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001.

Abdullah Abdullah, who was one of the senior figures in the anti-Taliban alliance before 2001 and then served as Karzai's foreign minister until 2006, registered to stand on Wednesday and told reporters he would give more power to the regions.

He would push to reduce the president's authority, create a post of prime minister responsible to parliament, and hold direct elections for governors and mayors.

"Decentralizing the system is one of the difficulties that Afghanistan is facing," he said. "All major decisions are (now) taken under particular circumstances by a particular team, and Afghanistan's people have a lesser participation."

REGIONAL AUTONOMY

The call for regional autonomy could help him win support among provincial bosses who bristle at central authority under Karzai, who now has the power to appoint and fire governors.

Abdullah is half Tajik and half Pashtun, with shared heritage from the two largest ethnic groups in the country. But he is mainly linked to Tajiks due to a long-standing association with the late Tajik guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Masood.

He named a former royalist Pashtun and a member of the Hazara minority as his two running mates. But he could face difficulty winning support from the Pashtuns who form Afghanistan's biggest ethnic bloc.

Karzai and most other leading opposition candidates are Pashtuns. Several of the Pashtun rivals have been in talks to field a single candidate to stand against Karzai, but have yet to reveal their plans with just two days left to register.

One of the main Pashtun candidates, regional governor Gul Agha Sherzai, pulled out of the race abruptly on Saturday, apparently to back Karzai.

Another opposition leader, former Tajik guerrilla chief Mohammad Qasim Fahim, quit Abdullah's National Front opposition group to stand as one of Karzai's running mates.

(Editing by Peter Graff)