Iran approves six presidential candidates
(VOVWORLD) - Iran on Sunday announced the names of 6 qualified candidates for the country's early presidential election scheduled later this month, following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
 A meeting of Iran’s parliament in Tehran. (Photo: AFP/ VNA) |
Of the 6 candidates, 5 are considered hardliners and only 1 is from the reformist camp.
On the list are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and former Revolutionary Guards commander, Saeed Jalili, who was Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator and ran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office for four years, and Tehran's mayor Alireza Zakani.
Other candidates are Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist lawmaker, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former interior minister, and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, a conservative politician.