Following the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May, the Islamic Republic will hold presidential “elections” — or more aptly, selections —on Friday, June 28. Iran’s Guardian Council — a 12-person body composed of six clerics and six civil jurists directly or indirectly appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — vets all candidates for public office The council has approved the candidacy of just six persons out of the 80 who registered to run. All six are male, half are subject to Western sanctions, five out of six served in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and only one is a cleric. While the next president is expected to serve at least one four-year term and could preside over a period of transition given Iran’s aging Supreme Leader, voters have increasingly resisted participation in electoral contests as nationwide anti-regime protests have risen in frequency, duration, and intensity.
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf
Saeed Jalili
Alireza Zakani
Mostafa Pourmohammadi
Seyyed Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi
Masoud Pezeshkian
