KABUL: Abdullah Abdullah, the suave former foreign minister who came second in Afghanistan’s fraud-tainted 2009 election, on Tuesday entered next year’s presidential race as the deadline for nominations loomed.

Abdullah pulled out of a second-round run-off in 2009 after collecting about 30 percent of the vote, allowing President Hamid Karzai to retain power in an election that was badly marred by cheating and violence.

“We will make sure that the people of Afghanistan have a fair election,” Abdullah said as he arrived at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) offices in Kabul and registered for the April 5 poll.

International donors are pushing hard for a credible election process next year after billions of dollars of development aid and 13 years of bloody fighting by US-led NATO forces against Taleban militants.

NATO combat troops will withdraw by December 2014 and the Taleban, who were ousted from Kabul in 2001, are seeking to return to government.

Abdullah, a former eye surgeon, has remained bitter about his old rival Karzai since the 2009 poll. He has previously alleged that the president, who is constitutionally barred from standing for a third term, is plotting to extend his time in office.

Abdullah was a close aide of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the anti-Taleban commander who was assassinated in 2001, and his fluent English and assured manner have earned him a strong reputation in international political circles.