Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, 60, a Pashtun from Logar province, came fourth in 2009 with just three per cent of the votes. He has worked at the World Bank and was finance minister under Karzai from 2002 to 2004.
Afghanistan. A technocrat, he is one of the few candidates with detailed economic proposals.
His recruitment of Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum as running mate has brought him a vote bank but may have lost him support among reform-minded Afghans.
Read Ashraf Ghani's life in dates.