Clue: Candidate to put up first part of capital on time (9)
Answer: POSTULANT
Explanation: Definition: Candidate
A charade of POST ('put up' bail, for example) plus ULAN ('first part of capital'; ULAANBAATAR, the capital of Mongolia, was formerly anglicised as Ulan Bator; or there is the less well-known Ulan-Ude, the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia) plus T ('time').