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DUBAI: Iran’s Ministry of Interior has confirmed seven candidates to run in June’s presidential elections, TV news channel Al-Arabiya reported.
The ministry has rejected requests made by the country’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri to run for presidency.
Ahmadinejad earlier said he would boycott the elections if he was not allowed to run.
The list of approved candidates by the Guardian Council, which is an unelected entity responsible for vetting candidates, includes judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is said to be seen as the most likely to succeed the incumbent President Hassan Rouhani.
“The prominent ultraconservative cleric, who is frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, looks to be the consensus candidate of Iranian conservatives in the upcoming June 18 vote,” the report said.
The list further includes former head of the Revolutionary Guards and secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaei, former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Member of Parliament (MP) Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, MP Alireza Zakani, and former vice president Mohsen Mehralizadeh are the remaining three relatively low-profile candidates.