Iran has approved six candidates for the presidential election to be held on June 28, following the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi.
According to the Middle East Eye, the Guardian Council, which oversees elections in the Islamic Republic, selected the six from 80 registered candidates. Those chosen are largely conservatives, with only one reformist allowed to stand.
Massoud Pezeshkian, who represents Tabriz in Iran’s parliament, had been critical of the government’s lack of transparency during nationwide protests triggered by the September 2022 death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.
Also chosen were Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and former interior minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, along with Tehran mayor Ali Reza Zakani and Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Raisi’s vice president.
A number of high-profile figures who had submitted their candidacy were not allowed to stand, including ex-parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Four women had also registered their candidacy but were disqualified, as has been the case for all presidential elections since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Reformists in Iran have said that despite the death of conservative president Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19, his faction would likely manage to keep its grip on power.
Earlier this week, the pro-reformist Ham Mihan discussed the topic with analysts and all of them emphasised that, despite low voter participation in previous elections, the government would stick to conservative candidates.