Iran registers presidential candidates for early vote after Raisi's death

Reuters
Updated ·2-min read

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran on Thursday started registration of candidates for an early election next month following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state TV.

Once seen as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ageing ultimate decision-maker, Raisi's sudden death has triggered a race among hardliners to influence the selection of Iran's next leader.

After the five-day registration period, the Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, will vet the candidates running for the presidency.

"The vetting process will be seven days and then qualified candidates will have almost two weeks for the election campaign," Vahidi told state TV. The Guardian Council will publish the list of qualified candidates on June 11.

Moderate politicians have accused the 12-member hardline Guardian Council of disqualifying rivals to hardline candidates, who are expected to dominate the upcoming presidential race.

Turnout may be hit by restricted choice on the ballot and rising discontent over an array of political, social and economic crises.

Within Iran's complex mix of clerical rulers and elected officials, Khamenei has the final say on all state matters such as nuclear and foreign policies. But the elected president will be in charge of tackling worsening economic hardship.

Saeed Jalili, a former chief nuclear negotiator who in 2001 ran Khamenei's office for four years, was the first heavy-weight hardliner to register for the election, state media said.

Jalili had made an unsuccessful bid in 2013 for the presidency and withdrew from the 2021 race to support Raisi.

The registration of candidates could include Parviz Fattah, a former Guards member who heads an investment fund linked to the leader, and Saeed Jalili, a former chief nuclear negotiator who in 2001 ran Khamenei's office for four years, insiders said.

Interim President Mohammad Mokhber and former parliament speaker and a Khamenei adviser, Ali Larijani, have also been mentioned in Iranian media as possible candidates. Larijani was barred from standing in the 2021 presidential race.

Several low-key moderate politicians are likely to enter the race.

(Additional reporting by Elwely Elwelly, Writing by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Michael Perry)

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • CNN Data Reporter 'Speechless' By New Donald Trump-Joe Biden Poll: 'Holy Cow, Folks!'

    Harry Enten said it could point to "a historic moment" in American politics.

  • Tony Blair’s bizarre statement on trans rights sums up the madness of our times

    Let’s try doing a little thought experiment. Imagine that, 20 years ago, you bumped your head and slipped into a coma – and have only now, in June 2024, regained consciousness. Naturally, you’re eager to check the news and find out what’s going on in the world. So, after a member of your family has lent you his or her iPad – and explained to you what it is and how to use it – you rush to visit The Telegraph website. And, at the top of the homepage, the very first headline you see reads as follow

  • David Cameron is a disgrace to Britain

    Why would anybody trust the Conservative Party to make the big decisions about the future of Britain, when they can’t even agree on what to do about Nigel Farage?

  • Anthony Fauci Memoir Recalls His Last Conversation With Donald Trump: ‘That F**ker Biden’

    The then-president also reportedly made a bold prediction that didn't come true.

  • China is almost ready for its war with the West

    While Russian forces continued their thrust towards Kharkiv over the weekend, world leaders descended on the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock in attempts to work out what a peace deal should look like. Vladimir Putin, predictably, had no interest in attending, but the absence of another world leader was more significant. Even as the US gears up to pivot its military attention to the Indo-Pacific to confront an increasingly assertive China, Xi Jinping chose not to attend.

  • Angela Rayner is a threat to European security

    It has become trite to say that the world is now more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War – or perhaps even the end of the Second World War. Trite but true.

  • Cameron, not Farage, destroyed the Conservatives

    David Cameron is back from outer space to tell us Nigel Farage wants to destroy the Conservative Party, that he’s playing “dog-whistle” politics and, we can infer, the Tories ought to run a mile from him. Thus the battle lines of the next leadership contest are drawn. Early advantage goes to elites who will say the party wandered too far to the Right – a view endorsed by a billion deadly dull podcasts made by people who think the Today programme is insufficiently subjective.

  • 'Normal' Nigel Farage resonates with UK seaside voters

    CLACTON-ON-SEA, England (Reuters) - Nigel Farage's brand of politics has found a home in the English seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, where voters described the right-wing party leader as a straight talker who, unlike other candidates, understands their problems and wants to solve them. Britain's July 4 election will be Farage's eighth attempt to win a seat in parliament after the anti-EU, anti-immigration campaigner entered the race proclaiming his aim to supplant the ruling Conservatives as the main party of the right. Farage is an expensively educated former financial trader.

  • Farage claims Reform UK has been ‘stitched up’ over candidate vetting

    Nigel Farage said Reform had paid ‘a large sum of money’ to a firm to scrutinise its candidates but has been let down.

  • Tories accuse BBC of ‘lefty Blairite bias’ over Laura Kuenssberg panel

    The BBC has been accused of “lefty Blairite bias” as it was criticised for selecting a panel of Rishi Sunak critics to join its flagship Sunday politics show.

  • Britain shouldn’t wave the nuclear white flag. We could flatten Russia

    As Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour party move ever faster towards No 10, aided by the Conservative party’s penchant to fall on its sword with monotonous regularity, we will soon be forced to confront the nuclear-warhead-sized elephant in the room. Promises to grow the economy are all well and good, but the security of the country is of paramount importance, especially when our Russian enemy has made its hatred for us clear.

  • Jon Stewart Busts 'Right-Wing Motherf**kers' Like Trump Over 1 Huge Lie

    "The Daily Show" host tore into conservatives over a major hypocrisy on a key talking point.

  • Count Binface promises national service for former prime ministers in manifesto

    The election candidate for the North Yorkshire seat releases his manifesto.

  • Hear former defense secretary under Clinton react to Trump’s comments about Zelensky

    Former President Donald Trump commented on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the war in Ukraine while speaking at an event hosted by Turning Point Action in Michigan. William Cohen, Cohen Group CEO and former Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, reacts to Trump’s speech.

  • One-Two Punch From the Skies Is a Massive Blow to Putin

    Ukraine’s military has spent the last two years chronically short of planes. Its prewar stocks were already small in number and mostly dated from the Soviet era. When NATO and other countries sent help, they focused on either sending the same older models or keeping existing aircraft in the air through maintenance and spare parts. Russia, meanwhile, has a larger and often more advanced air force.However, new planes are on the way to help Ukraine. For nearly a year, countries like the Netherlands

  • Kay Burley Skewers Grant Shapps By Claiming His 'Political Dreams Are Over'

    "In all seriousness, what will you do after the election? You have got a pilot's licence haven't you?"

  • Putin sacks four deputy defence ministers and appoints relative

    Vladimir Putin has sacked four deputy defence ministers and appointed one of his relatives to the role as he carries out a sweeping purge of officials in charge during the botched invasion of Ukraine.

  • General Election London: Find out who will be your MP from new interactive map of over 40 seats

    Millions of voters across London will go to the polls on July 4 to elect the new Government. The Standard is looking at how seats could change hands across the capital

  • The Right should fear Rachel Reeves more than Keir Starmer

    In one of the most famous psychological experiments of the past 30 years, Harvard-educated researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons asked a group of young people, three in black T-shirts, three in white, to pass a basketball around a confined space.

  • Britain is already at war, and nobody wants to admit it

    There are fewer than three weeks to go until polling day and, amid all the desperate campaigning and counter-campaigning, there is a dog that hasn’t barked – even though it is perhaps the most vital of all for our long-term survival.