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Iran on Monday announced the six candidates, approved for the June 28 election to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash.
The candidates announced by the interior ministry were selected from 80 registered hopefuls by the Guardian Council, which oversees elections in the Islamic Republic.
Among those approved are the conservative speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Just one reformist candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, who is a lawmaker representing Tabriz in Iran’s parliament, has been approved.
The conservative former interior minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi has also been authorised to run.
Others on the list include conservative Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani and incumbent vice president Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, the ultraconservative head of the Martyrs’ Foundation.
Zakani wrote on his social media handle, X, “I will compete until the end to continue the path of Raisi.”
According to Iran’s electoral law, campaigning should officially start from Sunday until 24 hours before the elections.
Four women had registered their candidacy but were disqualified, as has been the case for all presidential elections since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran’s presidential elections were originally slated for 2025 but were brought forward following Raisi’s unexpected death on May 19.
Raisi and seven members of his entourage, including foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were killed when their aircraft came down on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran.
AFP
