Iran’s Guardian Council announces presidential candidate list
The Guardian Council has given the green light to six candidates to run in Iran’s May 19 presidential election, with former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being disqualified.
On April 20, Iran’s Guardian Council, the watchdog tasked with vetting electoral candidates, announced a list of six hopefuls who have been cleared to run in the May 19 presidential election.
Despite all the rumors, incumbent President Hassan Rouhani was approved to run for a second term. Meanwhile, Rouhani’s first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and former Minister of Mining and Industry Mostafa Hashemi-Taba are two other moderate Reformist candidates whose candidacies were approved.
Among the conservatives approved by the Guardian Council were Ebrahim Raisi, the custodian of the holy shrine of the eighth Shiite Imam; Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; and former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mostafa Mir-Salim.
While conservative media outlets speculate that Jahangiri may stay until the end rather than withdrawing in favor of Rouhani, the Reformists and the moderates insist on the opposite.
