Afghanistan's new president-elect, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, was born in Logar province 65 years ago. He pursued his primary education in Kabul’s Habibia and Esteqlal high schools and later on went to Lebanon to continue his higher education.
While in Lebanon he pursued law and political science at Beirut University and after that he studied international relations and anthropology at Columbia University in the United States where he earned his PH.D in anthropology.
He has conducted research on Islam, social justice, the establishment of Islamic governance in tribal societies, crisis management, modern literature and the history of Afghanistan. He has also taught at John Hopkins University in the U.S. and Aarhus University in Denmark and later served as the Chancellor of Kabul University.
Beyond academia, Ghani has also served in different key positions, including as Chairman of planning and strategy for the World Bank (WB); advisor to the UN's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi; top advisor to the transitional government under Chairman Hamid Karzai; head of the security transition commission; and Minister of Finance. Ashraf Ghani was also a nominee for the 2009 presidential race, in which he came in 4th place.
In 2010, Foreign Policy magazine named Ashraf Ghani one of the top 100 thinkers in the world and later, in 2013, Prospect magazine gave him a similar honor.
Ashraf Ghani is married to Rula, a Lebanese national. He has one daughter and two sons.
The Chief Executive-designate, Abdullah Abdullah, was born in Kabul 55 years ago. He pursued primary education at Nadiria High School and later gained admission to Kabul Medical University and worked as a doctor in Noor Hospital in Kabul.
In 1984 he went to Pakistan, and then joined the Jamiyat party while he was working as a doctor in Syed Jamaluddin Afghan hospital in Pakistan. He was then selected as head of the Panjshir physicians and also served as an advisor to Ahmad Shah Massoud until 1992. He served as spokesman for the Ministry of Defense during the tenure of Ahmad Shah Massoud as Defense Minister from 1992 to 1996.
Abdullah has also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Hamid Karzai.
In the 2009 presidential race, Abdullah was one of the main rivals of President Karzai. He refused to run in a runoff election against the incumbent because of his reported mistrust of the election commission. He went on to form the National Coalition Party.
During his campaign in 2009, the establishment of parliamentary system in Afghanistan was one of his major policy prescriptions.
This year’s presidential election Abdullah received 44 percent of the total votes in the first round, putting him in the lead heading into the runoff. He claimed massive electoral fraud in the second round and boycotted the process amid accusations against election officials, resulting in his supporters to stage demonstrations throughout Kabul.
After several months, it was a political agreement that Abdullah signed with Ashraf Ghani, creating a national unity government in Kabul ultimately aimed at becoming more of a parliamentary system, which ended the stalemate between the candidates.
Abdullah has three daughters and one son.