A cardiac surgeon, a former mayor of Tehran and a cleric implicated within the execution of political prisoners are among the many six candidates authorized by officers to run in Iran’s election on Friday to exchange the president who died in a helicopter crash final month.
The candidates have renounced Iran’s hijab enforcement. They’ve addressed American sanctions which have contributed to the nation’s flailing economic system, and brazenly criticized the government throughout a sequence of debates, an uncommon transfer in Iranian politics. Nonetheless, voter apathy within the nation is excessive and divisions amongst conservative leaders make predicting the result troublesome.
Although Iran’s supreme chief, Ali Khamenei, has final authority over key state issues, the president units home coverage and might affect overseas coverage.
Iran’s Guardian Council, a committee of 12 jurists and clerics, whittled an preliminary listing of 80 presidential candidates down to 6, disqualifying seven girls and a former president and lots of different authorities officers. 4 candidates are nonetheless within the race.
Two of the candidates — Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Alireza Zakani — dropped out of the race to consolidate the conservative vote. If no candidate wins a majority on Friday, a runoff election shall be held on July 5 between the highest two winners.
The newest polls, revealed by the conservative, government-run Imam Sadiq College earlier this week confirmed Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian main with roughly 24.4 p.c of votes, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf at 23.4 p.c and Saeed Jalili at 21.5 p.c. The opposite candidates every had lower than 5 p.c of the vote and almost a fifth of voters had been undecided.
Here’s what to know concerning the 4 presidential candidates nonetheless within the race.
Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf
Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf is the present speaker of Parliament and the previous mayor of Iran’s capital metropolis, Tehran. The retired pilot and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander has repeatedly run unsuccessfully for president.
He’s additionally identified for his position within the authorities’s violent repression of scholars, first in 1999 after which in 2003, when he served because the nation’s chief of police and reportedly instructed authorities to fireplace reside bullets on college students.
Mr. Ghalibaf confronted accusations of monetary corruption throughout his tenure as mayor of Tehran and of ethical hypocrisy for his household’s lavish spending overseas. He has denied the allegations.
Reportedly near Mr. Khamenei, the conservative politician has campaigned on the promise to cut back authorities inefficiency, and has criticized the federal government for shedding cash by ineffectively navigating oil sanctions.
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran professional and Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences and Schooling at Missouri College of Science and Know-how stated Mr. Ghalibaf has tried to characterize himself because the “institution candidate,” on the facet of the elite throughout debates by positioning himself as the one one with the expertise and functionality to guide.
Masoud Pezeshkian
The one reformist candidate on the poll, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian is a cardiac surgeon and veteran of the Iran-Iraq conflict who served in Parliament and as Iran’s well being minister. After his spouse and youngster died in a automobile accident, he raised his different youngsters as a single father and has by no means remarried. This and his identification as an Azeri, one in all Iran’s ethnic minorities, has endeared him to many citizens.
Reformist candidates had been largely disqualified from the 2021 presidential election and parliamentary election in March. Specialists say Dr. Pezeshkian was probably included to extend voter turnout amongst reformist get together voters and Iranians who boycotted March’s parliamentary elections. The federal government sees excessive voter turnout as essential to the election’s perceived legitimacy.
Dr. Pezeshkian was endorsed by former President Mohammad Khatami and he has expressed openness to nuclear negotiations with the West, framing the talk as an financial subject.
Saeed Jalili
Saeed Jalili is an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator nicknamed “the residing martyr” after he misplaced a leg within the Iran-Iraq conflict. He leads the extremely right-wing Paydari get together and represents the nation’s most hard-line ideological views on the subject of home and overseas coverage.
Mr. Jalili stated he believes Iran doesn’t want to barter with the US for financial success. Although he’s probably the candidate closest to Mr. Khamenei, he presents a “completely unrealistic” evaluation of Iran’s financial capabilities to the general public, stated Mr. Boroujerdi.
“He’s useless opposed, not solely to any nuclear deal, however to any kind of opening within the West,” stated Mr. Boroujerdi.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi
Mostafa Pourmohammadi is the one cleric operating on this election. A former director of counterintelligence, he was a member of the committee that oversaw the execution of hundreds of political prisoners at Evin Prison in 1988. He has downplayed his position within the executions.
Outspoken and articulate, he stated throughout a debate that Iran’s greatest downside was that the federal government misplaced the folks’s help and can’t arouse participation within the election.
Mr. Pourmohammadi has been essential of Iran’s help of Russia throughout its ongoing invasion in Ukraine, saying his nation is just not reaping sufficient advantages for offering arms to the Kremlin.
He has additionally invoked former President Donald J. Trump in his campaign. “Wait and you will notice what’s going to occur when Trump comes,” he stated throughout a current televised debate. “We’ve to prepare for negotiations.”
In one in all Mr. Pourmohammadi’s marketing campaign posters, he and Mr. Trump are eye to eye, staring one another down. “The one that can stand in entrance of Trump is me,” it reads.