The Guardian Council of Iran is currently evaluating the potential presidential candidates for the forthcoming election, scheduled on June 28th. The election is designed to find a replacement for Ebrahim Raisi, whose untimely death occurred in a helicopter crash last month.
Before the registration deadline on Monday, an additional 43 individuals put forward their candidacies, increasing the overall number of presidential candidates to 80. Included in this list are four women. The aforementioned Council is tasked with curating the final list of contestants which is typically between four to ten. These individuals will partake in a two-week campaign encompassing rallies and televised debates, finalised by June 11th.
By Iranian law, those looking to run for president must be between the ages of 40 and 75, possess at least a master’s degree, have four years of occupation experience within governmental administration and not possess a criminal record.
Front-runner, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker of Iran’s hardline conservative party, is championing the cause of Mr Raisi. Qalibaf, previously a mayor of Tehran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRG) general, and national police chief, seems to have the backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, who has supreme policy-making power.
Others from the conservative faction include the former populist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, likely to be disqualified; the head of Iran’s premier security agency, Saeed Jalili; former IRG commander Vahid Haghanian, a close associate of Ayatollah’s son, Mojtaba.
Despite a previous ban against women participating in the election, former parliament member Zohreh Elahian has registered to run. Elahian has campaigned on the basis of rooting out corruption and mismanagement within the conservative establishment, under the slogan “healthy Government, healthy economy, and healthy society.”
On the other side, the cause of the centrists and reformists is being lead by Ali Larijani, a former parliamentary speaker who advocated the 2015 agreement that aimed to regulate Iran’s nuclear programme in return for a relief from sanctions. This deal was seen as a path to better relations with the West until it was abruptly abandoned by then US president Donald Trump in 2018.
Eshaq Jahangiri, the former deputy to ex-president Hassan Rouhani, and Abdolnaser Hemmati, ex-governor of the central bank are among the primary contenders representing the reformist faction in Iranian politics. Despite conservatives being the largest group amongst the candidates, moderates and reformists were allowed to enrol with the objective of initiating a substantial voting turnout. Observers opine that this could lift the credibility of the beleaguering religious governing system. The 2021 presidential election saw a record low turnout of 48.8 per cent, brought down to 42 per cent due to invalid votes, while previously the participation used to hover between 60-80 per cent.
On the 35th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s demise, the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khamenei encouraged ‘historic’ voter turnout during his televised speech on Monday. The religious hierarchy’s right to governance was severely questioned in 2022 when nationwide protests sparked due to the in-custody death of Mahsa Amini. She was detained for allegedly not wearing her headscarf, as dictated by Iranian laws. The demonstrations were further fuelled by economic dissatisfaction and suppression, leading to a harsh crackdown.
The Tehran Times, a state-run publication, noted, “This election marks a pivotal moment for Iran, presenting a chance to reshape its local and global policies and tackle complicated issues such as economic embargoes and regional disputes.”