Ramazan Bashardost is an anti-corruption candidate challenging President Hamid Karzai in the Afghanistan election.
The French university-educated Ramazan Bashardost from the once persecuted Hazara minority said his austerity was his appeal Photo: AP
However, his supporters could prove influential in determining whether Mr Karzai manages to score 50 per cent and avoids a second round.
A political maverick and anti-graft campaigner, Mr Bashardost has run his grassroots campaign from a roadside tent pitched near the Kabul parliament.
A former planning minister, he repeatedly denounced government corruption and criticised the role of aid agencies while he was in office, which ultmately led to his departure from Mr Karzai's government.
But he has won support among disillusioned Afghans, despite him lacking the money and tribal alliances of his rivals.
He says he gives away much of his salary and prefers to walk rather than own a car. He sometimes sleeps in his tent.
Mr Bashardost, from the Hazara ethnic group, was educated in France and has degrees in law, diplomacy and political sciences.
