Ghani joins race to succeed Annan 
By Jo Johnson
September 17, 2006
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/285df5a2-4673-11db-ac52-0000779e2340.html

Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan finance minister, is expected to make a late entry into the race to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general of the United Nations, taking the number of formally declared candidates to seven. 
Mr Ghani, 57, will declare his candidacy on Monday afternoon in a meeting with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who is visiting the US. 
“I hope to win, through ideas,” Mr Ghani told the Financial Times in New York. “In the public debate so far, I have yet to see a clear articulation of vision, an analysis of the central issues and a programme for change.”
The Kabul-born Mr Ghani returned to Afghanistan in October 2001 after an absence of 24 years, interrupting a stellar career at the World Bank as a UN special adviser. 
From June 2002 to December 2004 he served as finance minister, securing pledges of $28bn from international donors. He left the government to become chancellor of Kabul University. 
“The UN would be very lucky indeed to get him,” said Hernando de Soto, economist and founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima. 
Carlos Pascual, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, said he had “tremendous intellect, talent and capacity to mobilise the UN”. 
Other observers said Mr Ghani had a strong track record as an administrator but suffered from his reputation for impatience. 
“Ashraf wants to reform the whole international aid system and has some fantastic ideas,” said an acquaintance. “But given that he blows up at even his closest friends, I can’t see him as the world’s leading peace-maker.”
In a second round of straw polls in the Security Council last week, Ban Ki-moon, South Korea’s foreign minister, consolidated his lead. It also emerged that Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Latvian president, would run.