schema:articleBody
| - A five-day registration period for Iran's June 18 presidential election ended on Saturday, with more than 300 people signing up -- mostly political unknowns. Only a small number will be allowed to run after passing a validation process by the Guardian Council, an unelected body responsible for overseeing elections. According to the official calendar, the council is set to announce the final names on May 26-7. Below is a list of better-known candidates: - Mohammad Abbasi, ex-minister (conservative) - Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, MP, ex-chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (ultraconservative) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president from 2005-2013 (ultraconservative) - Abbas Akhoundi, ex-minister (reformist) - Hossein Dehqan, ex-minister, advisor to supreme leader (conservative) - Saeed Jalili, ex-secretary of Supreme National Security Council (ultraconservative) - Rostam Ghasemi, ex-minister (ultraconservative) - Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, MP (ultraconservative) - Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of Tehran City Council (reformist) - Abdolnasser Hemmati, Central Bank governor (reformist) - Shamsodin Hosseini, MP (conservative) - Eshaq Jahangiri, first vice-president (reformist) - Ali Larijani, advisor to supreme leader, ex-parliament speaker from 2008-2020, presidential candidate in 2005 (moderate conservative) - Mohsen Mehralizadeh, ex-vice president, candidate in 2005 (reformist) - Saeed Mohammad, Revolutionary Guards general (ultraconservative) - Ali Motahari, ex-MP (independent) - Masoud Pezeshkian, MP, ex-minister (reformist) - Ebrahim Raisi, judiciary chief, candidate in 2017 (ultraconservative) - Mohsen Rezai, secretary of Expediency Council, ex-Revolutionary Guards commander from 1981-1997, candidate in 2005, 2009 and 2017 (ultraconservative) - Mahmoud Sadeghi, ex-MP (reformist) - Mohammad Shariatmadari, labour minister (reformist) - Zahra Shojaei, ex-presidential aide for women's affairs (reformist) - Hassan Sobhani, ex-MP (moderate conservative) - Mostafa Tajzadeh, ex-deputy minister (reformist) - Alireza Zakani, MP (ultraconservative) - Ezzatollah Zarghami, ex-state TV chief (conservative) amh/mj/par
|