Iran's Presidential Contest Takes Shape with 6 Approved Candidates

Iran Has Accepted Six Applicants for Immediate Presidential Election

Iran's presidential election takes a surprising turn after President Ebrahim Raisi's unexpected death. Six candidates, including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have been approved to run in the snap election on June 28.

Iran's Guardian Council has approved six candidates, including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to run in the upcoming snap presidential election on June 28. This follows the unexpected death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19, which also claimed the lives of seven others, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. Raisi was a key figure in the succession plans for Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was widely expected to win another term.

The approved candidates include former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, who have both been cleared by the Guardian Council to run in the election. However, 74 other candidates were declared ineligible, continuing a pattern of notable candidate exclusions in Iranian elections. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and moderate contender Ali Larijani were among those disqualified, having also been barred from contesting in the 2021 election.

Ghalibaf, a 62-year-old former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air force, has a long history in public service, having served as chief of police and mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017. He withdrew from his presidential campaigns in 2005, 2013, and 2017 to make way for Raisi in the most recent contest. Saeed Jalili, Khamenei's envoy to the Supreme National Security Council, also pulled out of the 2021 presidential contest in favor of Raisi.

Tehran's mayor, Alireza Zakani, who became mayor after dropping out of the 2021 contest, has vowed to “continue the path” left by Raisi. Other approved candidates include Masoud Pezeshkian, a 70-year-old veteran legislator and former health minister representing the dwindling moderate and reformist forces, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior and Justice minister and head of Iran's Martyrs Foundation, who ran in 2021 and garnered less than a million votes.

The election is expected to be influenced by major concerns such as Iran's nuclear program and the country's faltering economy, which is plagued by high inflation and international sanctions. These issues will be discussed in five rounds of four-hour debates on state television. The upcoming presidential election takes place against a crucial backdrop of declining voter engagement, with only 41% of voters participating in the March 2024 parliamentary elections, the lowest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.