After a three-day delay, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced the initial list of Presidential candidates for the spring elections. Out of 26 candidates, the IEC disqualified 16 from running and approved 10. Nearly all of the most prominent names that registered for the elections made the cut.
The following names were included by the IEC in the preliminary list of 2014 Presidential candidates:
1. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and runner-up in the 2009 elections
2. Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf, former Jihadi leader and MP
3. Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, former chairman of the security transition process and former presidential candidate
4. Gul Agha Shirzai, former Minister of Urban Development and Governor of Nangarhar
5. Qayoum Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai
6. Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, former Minister of Foreign Affairs
7. Abdul Rahim Wardak, former Minister of Defense
8. Qutbuddin Hilal, member of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin faction
9. Hedayat Amin Arsala, former Presidential Advisor
10. Sardar Muhammad Nader Naeem, nephew of former Afghan President Mohammad Daoud Khan
The following names were disqualified by the IEC:
1. Anwar Ahadi
2. Abdul Hadi Dabir
3. Bismillah Shir
4. Dawar Nadim
5. Daoud Sultanzoy
6. Farooq Azam
7. Fazl Karim Najmi
8. Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai
9. Khadija Ghaznawi
10. Nader Shah Ahmadzai
11. Noor Rahman Liwal
12. Salman Ali Dostzada
13. Sarwar Ahmadzai
14. Sayed Ishaq Gilani
15. Hamidullah Qadiri
16. Aziz Ludin
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 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 IEC also announced on Tuesday that the names of at least 400 candidates for the spring Provincial Council elections were disqualified from the list of contenders amongst the nearly 3000 who registered.