Iran’s Presidential Hopefuls: Preselected, Male, And Hard-Line (Mostly)
Iran is holding a presidential election on June 28 following the death of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. Elections in the Islamic republic are tightly controlled with candidates being preselected by an unelected body dominated by hard-liners. The candidates cleared to run are all men, most are hard-liners, and some have ties to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of Iran’s armed forces.
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf
The Serial Candidate
62 years old
- Conservative
- Parliament speaker
- Former Tehran mayor
- Iran’s ex-police chief
- Former IRGC Air Force commander
Saeed Jalili
The Shadow President
58 years old
- Hard-liner
- Supreme leader’s representative on the Supreme National Security Council
- Former top nuclear negotiator
- Ex-IRGC member who lost his leg in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War
Mostafa Purmohammadi
The Token Cleric
64 years old
- Conservative
- Former interior and justice minister
- Accused of playing key role in mass executions of political prisoners in 1988
- Never held elected office but appointed to key positions
Masud Pezeshkian
The Lone Reformist
69 years old
- Reformist
- Former health minister
- Lawmaker from East Azerbaijan Province
- Ex-deputy speaker of parliament