KABUL: Afghanistan’s electoral commission said today that President Hamid Karzai and 40 other candidates will appear on the ballot for president this August, but the head of the commission said he felt “ashamed” that so many unqualified candidates made the final cut.

Karzai is considered the clear front-runner to win Afghanistan’s second presidential election since the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. His strongest challengers in the August 20 vote include former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Two women are also among the 41 candidates.

In announcing the final list of candidates, Azizullah Lodin, the head of Afghanistan’s election commission, said he believed that many of the candidates were not qualified but said he had no power to remove them.

“I personally feel ashamed that when I ask someone are you literate, and he says no. I ask if he has a professional background, and he says no. I ask if he was a mullah in a mosque, and he says no. And now he comes and registers himself and he wants to be president of Afghanistan. This is really shameful,” Lodin told reporters.

During the country’s first post-Taliban presidential election in 2004, 18 candidates ran for president. Karzai won in the first round with 55 per cent, while the second placed finisher, Yunus Qanooni, the current speaker of the lower house, won 16 per cent. Qanooni is not running this year.

A separate commission examined the original list of 44 candidates and removed two, though Lodin did not say why. A third candidate dropped out. Lodin said the commission still faced potential hurdles with the remaining candidates.

Afghanistan’s constitution says presidential candidates must only hold citizenship in Afghanistan and not be a dual citizen. But Lodin said the commission has no mechanism to screen candidates for that qualification.