DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A former speaker of Iran’s parliament registered Friday as a possible candidate in the Islamic Republic’s June 28 presidential election, replacing the former speaker of Iran’s parliament. Ebrahim Raisiwho died in a helicopter crash earlier this month along with seven others.
Ali Larijani is the first high-profile candidate to register for the competition. He and other serious contenders against Raisi were barred from participating in the 2021 elections.
Larijani, 66, is seen as a conservative within Iran’s narrow political scene. However, he has increasingly aligned himself with former President Hassan Rouhani, whose government reached a nuclear deal with a group of world powers in 2015. Larijani had positioned himself as a pragmatic candidate in the 2021 elections, which elected hardliner Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Larijani had been posting and making comments online in recent days, apart from confirming he would be a candidate. The Larijani family has long been powerful in Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
“Resolving the issue of sanctions for economic opening will be one of the priorities of diplomacy” for Iran, Larijani told reporters.
All candidates must be approved by Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and lawyers ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never accepted a woman or anyone calling for radical change in the country’s governance.
The question remains who will participate – and possibly be accepted –. The country’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, a former behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, could be a frontrunner because he has already seen a meeting with Khamenei. Also discussed as possible aspirants to his former hardline President Mohammed Ahmadinejad and former reformist President Mohammed Khatamibut whether they should be allowed to flee is another question.
The five-day registration period closes on Tuesday. The Guardian Council is then expected to announce its final list of candidates within ten days. This makes a shortened campaign of two weeks before the elections at the end of June possible.
The new president will take office while the country is enriching uranium to near weapons levels and obstructing international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war against Ukraine and launched a drone and missile attack on Israel during the day the war in Gaza. It has also continued arming proxy groups in the Middle East such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Iran’s economy has endured years of hardship due to the collapsing rial currency. The country has been rocked by widespread protests, most recently following the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law. A UN panel said the Iranian government is responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death.
