Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday formally registered as a candidate for Afghanistan’s delayed presidential election, setting up a rematch with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in the July ballot.

Mr. Ghani, who is seeking a second term, was elected in a fraud-tainted poll in 2014 that was only resolved in a U.S.-brokered power-sharing deal with Mr. Abdullah. Mr. Abdullah — the de facto Prime Minister and Mr. Ghani’s partner in the fragile unity government — is among at least 14 other candidates who have joined the race. The President has picked Amrullah Saleh, an ethnic Tajik and a staunch opponent of the Taliban, as his running mate.

Expanding support

Mr. Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, needs to expand his support beyond Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and build alliances with other ethnicities.

“A strong government can solve the current crisis. The crisis this country has faced in the past 40 years has been because of lack of a strong government,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber killed at least seven security guards on Sunday after targeting the convoy of an Afghan Governor, officials said. The attacker rammed a vehicle full of explosives into the convoy of Anwar Ishaqzai, the Governor of central Logar province, who was travelling with his provincial intelligence chief on the highway connecting the region to the capital Kabul.

Also, the Defence Ministry announced on Sunday that over 40 Taliban insurgents were killed during airstrikes and ground operations in the last 24 hours.