Ahmadinejad disqualified from presidential election as Iran approves 6 candidates

• Candidates are to start campaigning officially afterward.
• The Iranian election is due to take place on June 28.
• Council disqualifies Ahmadinejad, and four women. 

DUBAI: Iran’s Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, disqualified Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and issued names of approved six candidates to run for president in snap elections to be held later this month after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iranian media reported Sunday.

On the list are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s hardline parliament speaker and former Revolutionary Guards commander, Saeed Jalili, a conservative, who was former chief nuclear negotiator and ran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office for four years and Tehran’s conservative mayor Alireza Zakani, media reported.

The list, announced on state TV by the Election Office spokesperson, also includes Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist lawmaker, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a hardliner and a former interior minister, and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi a conservative politician.

“With the announcement of the final list of candidates, their electoral activities start officially,” state TV said.

The election is due to take place on June 28.

The Council disqualified hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, a prominent conservative, state media said.

In a Sunday post on social media site X, Zakani said he would “compete until the end to continue the path of” Raisi.

According to Iran’s electoral law, campaigning should officially start from Sunday until 24 hours before the elections.

Others including moderate ex-parliament speaker Ali Larijani and Vahid Haghanian, a former commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, were also barred from contesting the post.

Four women had also registered their candidacy but were disqualified, as has been the case for all presidential elections since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran’s presidential elections were originally slated for 2025 but were brought forward following Raisi’s unexpected death on May 19.