Factbox: Who in Iran is seeking the presidency after Raisi’s death?

(Reuters) – Iranians will have to choose between predominantly hard-line candidates in a snap presidential election on June 28, following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

Only six of more than 80 candidates survived the selection by the hardline Guardian Council, a body of clerics and lawyers that reports to the Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khameneiwho has the final say in all state affairs.

The president, who runs the day-to-day affairs of the government and bears special responsibility for Iran’s ailing economy, is ultimately accountable to the Supreme Leader.

Below are brief sketches of five hardliners and one moderate candidate for the upcoming election:

MOHAMMAD BAQER QALIBAF

Qalibaf, a former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and ally of Khamenei, is the current speaker of the hardline-dominated parliament. He had previously run unsuccessfully for president twice and had to withdraw his third candidacy in 2017 to avoid a split hardline vote in Raisi’s first failed presidential attempt.

In 2005, Qalibaf resigned from the Guard to run for president. After his unsuccessful campaign, with the support of the Supreme Leader, he assumed the office of mayor of Tehran, a post he held for twelve years.

In 2009, as mayor of Tehran, Qalibaf took credit for quelling months of bloody unrest that rocked the establishment following a presidential election that opposition candidates said was rigged to support hardliners. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s re-election.

He is known to civil rights activists as someone who cracked down on protests as national police chief, personally beat demonstrators in 1999 and also played an active role in quelling riots in 2003. Qalibaf did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.

Saeed Jalili

Jalili is a hard-line diplomat who lost his right leg in the 1980s while fighting for the Guards in the Iran-Iraq War. Jalili has a doctorate in political science and says he is a devout follower of Iran’s “velayat-e faqih,” or rule of supreme jurisdiction, an Islamic system of governance that forms the basis of Khamenei’s position.

Appointed by Khamenei, Jalili served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for five years from 2007, automatically making him the chief nuclear negotiator. Jalili also served in Khamenei’s office for four years and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2013 presidential election.

Jalili, a former deputy foreign minister, was appointed by Khamenei in 2013 as a member of the Expediency Council, a body that mediates disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council.

MASSOUD PEZESHKIAN

Pezeshkian, an Iranian lawmaker of Azerbaijani descent, is the only moderate candidate endorsed by the Guardian Council and supported by the pro-reform camp. His prospects depend on winning over millions of disillusioned voters who have stayed home from the polls since 2020.

Pezeshkian is a doctor by profession and was Minister of Health under the reformist President Mohammad Khatami from 2001 to 2005. He has been a member of parliament since 2008.

Pezeshkian has been vocal in criticizing the Islamic Republic for its lack of transparency surrounding the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022, which sparked unrest for several months.

Pezeshkian was barred from the 2021 presidential election.

MOSTAFA POURMOHAMMADI

Pourmohammadi is the only cleric in the presidential race. He served as interior minister from 2005 to 2008 during the hardliner’s first term under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He served as deputy intelligence minister from 1990 to 1999. Human rights groups claim that he was involved in the 1998 assassination of several prominent intellectual dissidents in Iran. He has not personally commented on these allegations, but a 1998 Intelligence Ministry statement said: “A small number of irresponsible, rogue and criminal agents of the Ministry, who were most likely puppets of others, committed these murders in the interests of foreigners.”

Human Rights Watch documented Pourmohammadi’s alleged role in the execution of hundreds of political prisoners in the Iranian capital in 1988 in a 2005 report.

Pourmohammadi has never publicly commented on the allegations concerning his role in a so-called “death committee” in 1988, which consisted of religious judges, prosecutors and intelligence officials and oversaw the executions.

ALIREZA ZAKANI

Zakani, Tehran’s hardline mayor and former lawmaker, was barred from running for president in 2013 and 2017.

Zakani, the former commander of the Basij volunteer militia affiliated with the Guards, withdrew from the 2021 presidential campaign to support Raisi’s candidacy. But in a post on X, Zakani said: “In the 2024 election, I will stay and run to the end to continue on (Raisi’s) path.”

AMIRHOSSEIN GHAZIZADEH-HASHEMI

The incumbent vice president and head of the Martyrs’ Foundation, Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, is a former hardliner in parliament who received few votes in the 2021 presidential election.

(Written by Parisa Hafezi; edited by Edmund Blair, William Maclean)