Six, including Parliament speaker Ghalibaf approved to run for snap elections in Iran
Jun 09, 2024
Tehran [Iran], June 10 : Six people, including Iran Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, are approved to run for the snap presidential election, which are set to take place on June 28 in Iran after the tragic demise of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, according to Al Jazeera.
Former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani were permitted to run by the Guardian Council, a constitutional screening body; however, 74 other candidates were disqualified.
The 62-year-old Ghalibaf, a former head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) air force, served as Tehran's mayor from 2005 to 2017 and as the country's chief of police prior to taking office as speaker of the parliament for four years.
In 2005, 2013, and 2017, he entered the presidential race; nevertheless, he withdrew in favour of Raisi.
Jalili, the direct representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the nation's Supreme National Security Council, opted not to run in the 2021 election, preferring Raisi, who won almost handily.
The two most well-known disqualified candidates are the moderate contender and former three-time parliament speaker Ali Larijani, as well as the populist former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also ineligible to run in 2021, as per Al Jazeera.
The presidential election in Iran were scheduled for 2025, however, due to Raisi's death on May 19 in a helicopter crash in north-western Iran, the election was moved up. Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, was also killed, along with other Iranian officials, in the tragic crash.
The 63-year-old Raisi was a prominent figure in the succession planning for Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader and was predicted to win another term in office.
