Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf -- a former military commander -- has registered for Iran’s June 28 presidential election, joining a list of some three dozen mostly hard-line candidates seeking to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in mid-May.
Qalibaf's registration came on June 3, the final day for potential candidates to apply to participate in the election.
The conservative Guardians Council – featuring 12 hard-liners approved by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – will vet candidates and announce on June 11 which ones will be allowed to compete.
The Guardians Council generally allows only candidates acceptable to Khamenei and other hard-liners to run, and Qalibaf had been pegged by observers as a front-runner in the presidential race.
Qalibaf, 62, has sought the presidency three times in the past -- running in 2005, 2013, and 2017. He withdrew in 2017 in favor of Raisi, who finished second to the moderate incumbent Hassan Rohani.
Qalibaf served as a commander of Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from 1997 to 2000, as Iran's chief of police from 2000-05, and as mayor of Tehran from 2005-17.
He was blamed by many critics for a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2003.
Iranian news agencies reported on June 3 that Eshagh Jahangiri, seen by many as a reformist and who had been banned from running in previous elections, also had registered. Jahangiri served as vice president to Rohani from 2013-21.
SEE ALSO: Will Raisi's Death Bring Major Changes To Iran's Policies? The Short Answer Is 'No.'On June 1, former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, 67, a longtime enemy of reformists, registered to join the list of overwhelmingly hard-line candidates seeking to replace Raisi.
Ahmadinejad’s announcement follows similar moves by a former IRGC commander who is under U.S. sanctions, Vahid Haghanian; Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani; and the longtime former speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani.
Iranian media reported that at least 37 people had registered heading into the final day before the deadline.
Iran's presidential votes and other elections are plagued by low turnout that has worsened in recent years, spurred by disqualifications and crackdowns on dissent.
Rights groups have complained of an intensified clampdown on public expressions of discontent since Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others died in the helicopter crash in a mountainous region of northwestern Iran while returning from an official visit to Azerbaijan.
Raisi had been accused of serving as a prosecutor for an "execution committee" that sent thousands of political prisoners and regime opponents to their deaths in the late 1980s.