The phrase "a formal candidate" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to refer to someone who has officially declared their intention to run for a position, often in a political context or for a specific role.
Example: "After much consideration, she decided to become a formal candidate for the upcoming election."
Alternatives: "an official candidate" or "a declared candidate".
She advocated such a change a year ago, before becoming a formal candidate.
The European Union agreed two months ago to make Turkey a formal candidate for membership.
Iceland could then become a formal candidate in late 2009, when Sweden (another ally) holds the rotating EU presidency, and a full EU member by 2011.
It took until 1999 for the European Union to accept Turkey as a formal candidate, and it still has not set a date to begin negotiations on the country's membership application.
Turkey has been a member of Nato since 1952 and was accepted as a formal candidate for EU membership in 1999, but many questions over its anchoring in the western world have been reignited.
But since the EU decided last December to accept Turkey as a formal candidate to join, he has been less strident in insisting that Turkish-Cypriots cannot join until Turkey does.Mr Clerides used to argue that the business of negotiating EU entry would itself prove a catalyst for finding a solution to the Cyprus puzzle.
The head of government stands two swords-lengths away from the leader of the opposition, and they go at it in a fashion that's far more free-wheeling and entertaining than any formal candidate debate.
In the gym here, backers said they saw in her teary eyes a reason to embrace this sometimes formal candidate.
What French soon discovered was that you don't need to be a formal presidential candidate to be scrutinized as one.
She agreed to resign from the committee and go through formal candidate screening.
It may even win formal candidate status by the end of 2010.
