Iran’s election official Mohsen Islami announced on Sunday the final list of candidates approved to run in the upcoming presidential election.
Iran’s 14th presidential election will take place on 28 June. The list, endorsed by the Guardian Council for the snap general election, follows the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan.
Among the six qualified candidates were Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Masoud Pezeshkian, Saeed Jalili, Alireza Zakani, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Seyyed Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi. The registration of potential candidates lasted for five days, with a total of 80 people registering.
However, the council again barred other high-profile candidates, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Larijani. All female candidates were also barred from running for the office, as it has been an exclusively male position since its inception.
After the announcement of the final list of candidates for the 2024 presidential election, social media users reacted differently. Some expressed satisfaction with the Guardian Council’s vetting process, whereas others criticised the disqualification of candidates. Several users lamented the lack of diversity and new faces among the candidates.
The final list of candidates generally evoked a wide range of opinions in Iran, from satisfaction to criticism and resignation.
