Iran Approves Six Candidates to Run for President

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Facts

• Iran on Sunday approved six mostly conservative candidates to run for the presidential election on June 28 following the death of Pres. Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.¹
• Iran's Guardian Council — which monitors elections and legislation — has approved the list, which includes parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Tehran's Mayor Alireza Zakani.²
• The Council also approved the candidacies of lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian, former Interior and Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, and the head of Iran's Martyrs Foundation Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi.³
• The Council rejected the candidacy of former Pres. Mahmud Ahmadinejad and former parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.⁴
• Former central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, former vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, and former IRGC commander Vahid Haghanian were also disqualified. In Iran, the Supreme Leader, not the president, is the ultimate authority in all state affairs.⁵
• Pres. Raisi and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran on May 19. Raisi was the second Iranian president to die in office after a bomb explosion killed Mohammad Ali Rajai in 1981.⁶

Sources: ¹Dw, ²Reuters, ³Al Jazeera, ⁴RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, ⁵Alarabiya and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by Tehran Times. Those who predicted that Iran would slide into political chaos following Raisi's tragic death were proven wrong. The line-up of the six candidates to run for election is a testament to the political continuity and diversity of the Iranian political landscape. The list includes representatives from almost all political factions, and following a period of fierce competition, Iranians will choose their new president. Iran's vibrant political institutions remain strong.
• Anti-Iran narrative, as provided by Iran International. The unelected Guardian Council, controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has approved the candidates whose profiles are similar to those who ran for the 2021 election. Moreover, all admitted candidates are conservatives or hardliners loyal to Khamenei, with only one 'reformist' running to boost turnout and lend some legitimacy to the process. However, even if he wins, Khamenei and his clique will pull the strings, making the upcoming vote another sad political charade.

Predictions