| KABUL: President Hamid Karzai's chief rival in Afghanistan's first presidential election on Tuesday denied cutting a deal with Karzai and said he was staying in the race. Yunus Qanooni, Karzai's former education minister, stepped down in July to run against him. He has been involved with talks with Karzai in recent days, with the president publicly calling on him to rejoin his government in the next administration. "Over the past few days there have been discussions ongoing between Mr Karzai and some of our friends," Qanooni told reporters after reading his election manifesto in Kabul. "There were calls for us to reach to an agreement with Mr Karzai — we discussed this matter with the people of Afghanistan but we did not get a positive answer from the people,," he said. "Therefore, there is no any agreement or protocol between me and Mr Karzai," he said, adding he would continue to run in the October 9 election. He said the negotiations were mainly carried out by Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who has declared his support for Qanooni in the polls. Karzai, front-runner among the 18 candidates in the presidential race, has made overtures to his election rival. |