Iran reveals presidential election candidates

Addis Ababa, June 9, 2024 (FBC) – Iran’s Interior Ministry has released a final list of six candidates who will compete in this month’s presidential election. The election was called after President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May.

The candidates were approved by Iran’s Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists that holds veto power over legislation passed by parliament, and determines who can seek office in the Islamic Republic.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, Saeed Jalili, Alireza Zakani, Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will take part in the June 28 election, the ministry announced on Sunday.

Ghalibaf is the current speaker of Iran’s parliament. A former police chief, he ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005 and 2013. Hashemi currently serves as vice president, while Zakani is Tehran’s mayor. All three are considered hardliners. Pezeshkian is viewed as a reformist. Mohammadi is a conservative jurist, while Jalili headed Iran’s Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013 and was a senior nuclear negotiator.

Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed on May 19 in the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan. RT