Former officials, disqualified candidates among likely candidates in Iran’s presidential elections

Fresh from the funeral and burial ceremonies for the late president and his companions, the country is speculating on the likely candidates who will run for the chief executive’s office.

Tasnim news agency, close to the principlists’ camp, have cited anonymous sources that Abdolnaser Hemmati former governor of the Central Bank under former president Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Reza Aref, former vice president during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, are the likely candidates of the reformists.

The news agency also reported that veteran politician and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani has not ruled out filing for candidacy in the election, a claim not dismissed by Larijani’s advisor Mansour Haghighatpour.

Haghighatpour told Entekhan news outlet that Larijani is weighing the situation “so that he would not be bitten for the second time,” referring to his disqualification in the 2021 presidential election by the Guardian Council.

“Ali Larijani is not unwilling to participate in the elections, but in a meeting he had with the officials of one of the parties, he has apparently made his candidacy conditional on fulfillment of certain demands,” he explained.

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also disqualified by Iran’s vetting body in 2017, has hinted he might step on board as a candidate.

Following the demise of President Raisi last Sunday, Leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, under the constitution, designated vice president Mohammad Mokhber as the caretaker chief executive ordering him to hold a new round of the presidential vote withing 50 days.