Ramadhan Abbey
Tehran
After the death of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, over 80 candidates rushed to pick nomination forms to contest for the country’s presidency but many were barred due lack of qualification.
The Guardian Council, the country’s top vetting body verified only six out 80 candidates of which two candidates also dropped out from the race a day to the election.
And those include Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani and Government official Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi
Know who is who in the Iranian Presidential Race
Who is Masoud Pezeshkian?
He is the only candidate who does not belong to the conservative or hardline factions and has been a member of parliament since 2008.
The five-time lawmaker, who represents Tabriz, was deputy parliament speaker from 2016 to 2020. A heart surgeon, he has also been a longtime member of the health commission of Iran’s parliament.
He was health minister in the early 2000s under former President Mohammad Khatami. He was disqualified from running in the 2021 presidential election by the Guardian Council.
Who is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf?
The incumbent parliament speaker, who has held the post for over four years, has a strong chance of becoming Iran’s ninth president.
He became parliament speaker after parliamentary elections in 2020, which were marked by a wide disqualification of centrist and reformist candidates, and a turnout of just over 42 percent.
The 62-year-old is a former commander of the air force of Iran’s IRGC, was mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017, and the chief of police before that.
He ran for president unsuccessfully in 2005 and 2013. In 2017, when he withdrew in favor of Raisi.
With a Raisi victory all but assured in 2021, and with Ghalibaf already securing the top seat in parliament, he did not participate.
Who is Saeed Jalili?
Jalili is the direct representative of the supreme leader to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
He was appointed by Khamenei as the secretary of the council in 2007, a post he held until 2013, during which time he handled the Iranian nuclear file.
He was replaced as security chief after a period of heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme that led to international sanctions on the country.
The 58-year-old ran for president unsuccessfully against Hassan Rouhani in 2013, and in 2021 withdrew from a pool of seven candidates in favour of Raisi.
His longtime ally Ali Bagher Kani, who has been Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator since 2021, is now acting foreign minister.
Jalili has remained in the SNSC, operating what he himself has proudly called a “shadow government”.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi
Born in December 1959 in the Iranian city of Qom, the 64-year-old Pourmohammadi served in different positions and cabinet posts.
He served as the Minister of Interior Affairs (2005-2008) and as the Justice Minister (2013-2017) in two different administrations.
He also served in other posts including the prosecutor of the revolutionary courts in the provinces of Khuzestan, Hormozgan, and Khorasan, and the prosecutor of the armed forces revolutionary courts in western Iran.
In 2003, he was appointed by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, as the head of the political and social department of his office.
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