Iran's powerful Guardians Council approved the country's conservative parliament speaker and five other candidates to run in a June 28 election called after President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash last month.
The council on June 9 approved the candidacy of parliament head Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, 62, a former military commander who has been seen as a potential front-runner. In a speech last week, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seemed to signal his support for Qalibaf, analysts said.
The council also approved the candidacies of reformist lawmaker Masud Pezeshkian; Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator and Khamenei’s representative on the Supreme National Security Council; Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani; Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, a conservative deputy to Raisi; and Mostafa Purmohammadi, a hard-line former interior and justice minister.
It rejected an application of former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, a populist who carried out a harsh crackdown on dissent following his disputed reelection in 2009.
The council also rejected the proposed candidacy of Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker and nuclear negotiator.
On June 7, the government announced strict guidelines for the media during the abbreviated election campaign, barring any content deemed to discourage voter participation or to urge election boycotts. The regulations also criminalize the organizing of unsanctioned protests, strikes, or sit-ins.
The Guardians Council announcement came one day after the main coalition of reformists said it would only participate in the election if one of its proposed candidates were approved to run.
"We must have our own candidate," Azar Mansuri, leader of the Reform Front, told the Fars news agency.
Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and several other officials were killed on May 19 when the helicopter they were travelling in crashed in bad weather in a mountainous area near the country's border with Azerbaijan.