Iran presidential election 2021: Candidates announced, cleared to start campaigning

Iran’s Interior Ministry has released a final list of the candidates found qualified by the Constitutional Council to run for president in the June 18 election, officially clearing them to start campaigning.

The much-awaited list, which was released on Tuesday, includes Saeed Jalili, Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, Mohsen Rezaei, Alireza Zakani, Seyyed Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, Albdolnasser Hemmati, and Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh.

Raeisi has been the chief of Iran’s Judiciary since 2019. He is mainly associated with the Principlist camp, but he said he would be contesting the June 18 vote “independently.”

Rezaei, a Principlist, currently serves as the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council.

Mehr-Alizadeh, a Reformist politician, formerly served as vice president and head of the National Sports Organization of Iran under ex-President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami.

Jalili, a Principlist figure and former diplomat, served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2007 to 2013. In that capacity, he served as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator in talks with major world states on the country’s nuclear program.

Zakani is a Principlist politician and a lawmaker representing the city of Qom in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis).

Hemmati, affiliated with the Reformist camp, is an Iranian politician and economist who currently serves as the governor of the Central Bank of Iran.

Ghazizadeh-Hashemi is a Principlist politician and lawmaker.

A number of heavyweights, including Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, as well as former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were disqualified by the Constitutional Council from joining the presidential race.

According to official figures, 592 hopefuls had registered to join the forthcoming presidential race, pending approval by the Constitutional Council — which supervises Iran’s elections and is in charge of vetting hopefuls.

The Council, however, said only 40 out of the 592 hopefuls had submitted all the required documents to the panel through the Interior Ministry’s election HQ.

It took 10 days for the Council’s jurists to examine the qualifications of the hopefuls. Each hopeful had to secure at least seven out of the 12 votes to get the vetting body’s approval for running in the election.

Reacting to the list, Raeisi said in a tweet that he had been “making contacts and was [still] in talks” since Tuesday afternoon in order to help make the election “more competitive” and promote the turnout.

Larijani also issued a statement and accepted his disqualification.