Former ophthalmologist and resistance fighter Abdullah Abdullah stands one step away from becoming the president of Afghanistan, five years after (he believes) the job was stolen from him.
Abdullah, 53, has plotted to avenge his defeat since the 2009 election when he came second to Hamid Karzai in the first-round vote and then dramatically pulled out of the run-off, alleging that fraud would again be used to fix the result.
This time, he is the front-runner in the race and goes into Saturday´s head-to-head vote after coming in an easy winner in the first round with 45 percent compared to rival Ashraf Ghani´s 31.6 percent.
As a pro-Western, religiously moderate politician, he has spent his time in opposition building ties with tribal leaders who hold the key to power, as well as staying close to the US and other major donor nations.
Abdullah, who started off as an eye doctor in Kabul, was a member of Burhanuddin Rabbani´s government during Afghanistan´s 1992-1996 civil war, and made a name for himself abroad for his fluent English and courtly manner.
His formative political experience was as the right-hand man to Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic Tajik commander who led resistance to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and to the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
