Kabul  - Sangin Mohammed Rahmani rides his Chinese-made bicycle on the unpaved and potholed roads of Kabul, personally distributing his posters and campaign fliers and asking people to vote for him for president of Afghanistan.

"I am like you; I understand your pain, and I understand what you want," Rahmani tells a group of street venders and pedestrians who have surrounded him in downtown Kabul. "You want peace and food for your families, so if you want to change your lives for the better and have a better future for your children, vote for me.

While speaking about his platform in a near-shout in a bid to be heard over the sounds of passing cars, he pulls out a bunch of papers from a shabby bag tied to the back of his bicycle, saying, "This is my platform and biography. Please read them."

"I know it is not colourful, but it has meaningful content about your future. Please give it to others after you read it because I don't have enough for all," he tells the crowd before remounting his old bicycle with a missing headlight and pedaling to the next street corner.

Rahmani, a 56-year-old retired army officer and father of six, is one of 41 Afghan candidates standing for the August 20 presidential election, and he faces some formidable competition.

President Hamid Karzai is hoping for re-election while three of his former cabinet ministers - Abdullah Abdullah, a former finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister, and Ramazan Bashardost, a former planning minister - are vying to unseat him.

While the rest of the candidates - including Rahmani, a fortune teller and two women - are widely unknown in the country, a number of former powerbrokers have also joined the race.

They include a former Taliban official who was famous for his ability to shoot down Russian helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and a former defence minister during Afghanistan's communist-backed regime.

Although the portraits of major candidates like Karzai and his main rival, Abdullah, adorn giant billboards on all corners of Kabul, one-man campaigner Rahmani is not discouraged as he glues his own pictures on the city's electrical poles and walls. The man who is unable to afford to buy his own home says he is on a crusade.

"I worked for more than 30 years with different governments but still don't have a piece of land to make a shelter for my children, and then I realized that many others people face the same problem, so I decided to run, and if I win, I will provide housing to all needy people and make my government a government of the people," he says.

His message has found an audience, albeit a small one.

"I can see honesty in his eyes and in his words," says Ahmad Jamal, one of a group of labourers addressed by Rahmani. "I will definitely vote for him although I know he won't win because not many people know him."

Rahmani, attired in a baggy gray suit with a matching tie, not only delivers campaign addresses but also fields questions from the group, such as "What are you going to do with foreign forces in the country?"

"It is very simple," Rahmani says. "I will legitimize their stay in Afghanistan, and as commander-in-chief, I will tell them to do what I want. If they don't listen, I will ask them to leave."

While Rahmani stands out in Kabul because of his unique bicycle campaign, he cannot do the same in other Afghan cities.

In a recent campaign trip to the western province of Herat, he had to lock his bike at the Kabul airport parking lot after the air crew refused to allow him to take it on board.

Some of his rivals travel to their campaign rallies in armoured vehicles escorted by 20 police and dozens of their own private guards, but Rahmani refuses a police escort.

"I am moving around on my bicycle. Don't you think it would look funny when my bodyguards are escorting me with their police cars?" he asks.

While he has not faced any security problems at his campaign rallies, Rahmani says he has received numerous calls from government officials and influential people to withdraw from the race in favour of more powerful candidates.

"They threatened me several times to withdraw or be ready for bad consequences, but I have promised to my God and my people that I will not sell my supporters' votes for money or a government post," he says.

Rahmani, a Tajik from the northern province of Badakhshan, is among 37 candidates who were expected to garner less than 2 per cent of the vote in the election, according to a US government-funded opinion poll released this week.

Karzai, who has lost support both at home and abroad for his government's inability to tackle government corruption and bring security to the war-torn nation, was leading in the poll with 37-per-cent support while Abdullah emerged as his closest competitor with 20 per cent.

Despite the poll results, Rahmani remains confident.

"I have travelled around the country and know that 80 per cent of the people support me," he claims. (dpa)