Iran Picks Slate to Replace President Killed in Crash

Populist, moderates are blocked, while hard-line speaker will be on ballot
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 9, 2024 10:00 AM CDT
Iran Picks Slate to Replace President Killed in Crash
A woman holds a poster of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on May 22 during a funeral ceremony for him and his companions who were killed in a helicopter crash.   (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iran's Guardian Council on Sunday approved the country's hard-line parliament speaker and five others to run in the June 28 presidential election following a helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others. The council again barred former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a firebrand populist known for the crackdown that followed his disputed 2009 reelection, from running, the AP reports. The council's decision represents the starting gun for a shortened, two-week campaign to replace Raisi, a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once floated as a possible successor for the 85-year-old cleric.

The selections by the Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei, continued the practice of not accepting a woman or anyone calling for radical change. The most prominent candidate remains Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, 62, a former Tehran mayor with close ties to the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Qalibaf, as a former Guard general, was part of a violent crackdown on university students in 1999. He also reportedly ordered live gunfire to be used against students in 2003 while the country's police chief, per the AP. Other candidates include Saeed Jalili, former Jalili, former senior nuclear negotiator, who ran in 2013, and registered in 2021 before withdrawing to back Raisi.

Tehran Mayor Ali Reza Zakani also withdrew in 2021 to back Raisi. Mostafa Pourmohammadi is a former minister of justice. Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Raisi's vice president, ran in 2021 and came in last. Masoud Pezeshkian is the only reformist candidate among a slate of hardliners and is not seen as having much chance. The council disqualified Ahmadinejad, the firebrand, Holocaust-questioning former president who challenged Khamenei toward the end of his term. It also blocked former speaker of parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative with strong ties to the relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani. Former Iranian Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati and Eshaq Jahangiri, who was vice president under moderate President Hassan Rouhani, were also disqualified.

(More Iran election stories.)

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